Contact Paper

 

Contact paper

 

You only wanted to line a shelf

To put up

Glasses

Perhaps of peaches this year,

And next

A crop of

Chances

Broken glass

Take out the broom again

Wipe down the counters

Seal off the things that might have been

If only there hadn’t yet been

Any contact

 

And so first

You break the seal

Measure the space where talking might

Yet be safe

Slide the scissors over, thinking what is past

Is healed

To find

Uh-uh, not quite sister

Better think again

Tasting like salt

And too much late night vodka

Taken straight

Til sleep is helpless to do anything more

Than surrender

You lay down your head….