Of Property

all of my belongings in the box       of my room
enumerated are        books and pages the stench of evening body
the halo hair on my daughter’s sketch of us  glass of flat diet pepsi
clips of words prescriptions      photos   checkbook  and krazy glue
ipad home of my crosswords        lamp and husband hooks  briante
kloaka and herrera       headphones input      broadsides tibetan flags
bad to the bone legs    suttree    hyphenated  affliction ruthie text
american girl catalog detritus of literary life     the material kind
lines and strategies from said husband’s books   bled into this
din of dr. seuss            and smell of         a swamp cooler       stacks
called  islands laundry      in all its states   my dysphoria krystal text
today  I peeked into someone               else’s life of real wood floors
of islands      through their  avatars   we all   fixate on  a palace
decent soundsystems       the laptop  is my portal    tunnel vision
scissors  fancy  pen someone else’s moleskine  I’m lonely  jade plant
ikea nightstand wallet from rosa    notebook from lily   necklace from yael
son’s miró-like drawing     the son    my double   and my fresh joy
four pillows   intermittent acquiring and liking   strappy sandal in a zappo
box an ambien purchase      that time somebody scuffed  my face
I objected with       a betty boop  mask    incense  powerade zero
Credit

From Cruel Futures. Copyright © 2018 by Carmen Giménez Smith. Used with the permission of City Lights Books.