Читать книгу Popular Longing - Natalie Shapero - Страница 12

Five by Seven

Really, when people have photographs of themselves

displayed on their walls, I just assume

they have died and it is their ghosts

who’ve invited me over, their ghosts with whom

I’m sharing a meal, making small

talk about all the bodies and trash on Mount Everest.

Oh lacquered ghosts, so high on your own

finished triptych of fetes

and feats and the corresponding assurance

you go unforgotten—let’s

go out. From the recent restaurant

boom, infer a citywide uptick in rage-ravaged homes.

People want new spots to fight, to squall

and snipe, lose their appetites, be brought

the chalkboard special, not touch it,

see it whisked to the kitchen and scraped

out back for a dog to eat, but that’s cool—dogs

have to eat, too—