The Mistress
- The Mistress
Rats chew the cords tying you to anyone but me.I shine like a moderate success, but I’ll accept
the smears of tar patching your driveway, or the swarmof moths rising like a phoenix from your flour, your rice.
Let’s make terrible choices together. We have dominionover grape leaves & muscle memory & the inevitable
inching forward of things. Teach toddlers about cannibals.Take the pills that will shudder small life from its moorings.
I am the book of matches in your pocket.You are sole comfort, keeper of my gray birds. [End Page 115]
Amanda Hope is a poet and librarian from eastern Massachusetts. This is the first publication of her work. She enjoys riding the subway, scratching various animals behind the ears, and eating lemon squares. She wears the most magnificent boots.
