POETRY

XI

By Rodney Terich Leonard     VOLUME 53.4

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An outhouse year.
Someone I love rips rags for tampons.
Someone I love speaks less & less.

Is the sky
ever too pink
to suggest you’re poor?

I am eleven—
having studied them
I introduce myself to Colonel Douglas R. and Jessica K. Smith
husband & wife
of Rockfords Golden Rule Market--
the Smiths of Asprey & Chanel
cashmere & city speech
of Beethoven’s italicized wonderment
I know because I asked
of Black-chauffeured blue Cadillac
& 2 Doberman Pinschers
guarding their brick Federal Colonial.

I am hired.
To neaten & clean,
to stock & cashier--
sometimes I pump gas.

On calendar-circled Saturdays
I utter Eames, rattan, Picasso
bone china, commissary, sparkle, miso
lacquer, Andrew Wyeth, linseed oil
poached, Shakespeare, Melba toast
duvet, Summer’s Eve, Harper Lee
salmon, invoice, Unleaded, Visa.

Slowly
I inch
my family away
       from
government
milk & cheese.

 


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RODNEY TERICH LEONARD is the author of Sweetgum & Lightning (Four Way Books, 2021). His poems have been published in BOMB, Four Way Review, the Cortland Review, What Rough Beast, and other journals. He holds an M F A in poetry from Columbia University. A native of Alabama, Rodney currently lives in New York City.


VOLUME 53.4