Weights & Measures
Rent from DeepDyve- Weights & Measures
In the unpredictable calculus of their separation, he comes & goes—she can’t stop his returning to pour salt
into the softener or trim trees, as though such acts count as some sort of penance. He owns the house, too.
So he makes himself at home, sitting at the breakfast bar, running through receipts to throw his weights
& measures around, balancing his self-made scales of justice in the budget.
The wife washes the dishes, her teeth grinding, digging into her tongue,
as her husband subtracts every part of her he can, complaining as he goes how inadequate
everything is, how nothing adds up. She figures how to breathe only when he leaves. [End Page 118]
Julie L. Moore is the author of three books of poetry: Particular Scandals, Slipping Out of Bloom, and Election Day. Her poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Image, Nimrod, Poetry Daily, Southern Review, and Verse Daily. Her work also has appeared in several anthologies, including Becoming: What Makes a Woman, published by University of Nebraska Gender Programs, and Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio, published by Ohio University Press. Visit www.julielmoore.com.
