Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
Walk into this breakfast nook: banquette set for one,
all cream walls and late morning lemon sun
puddling and dripping on the Restoration Hardware.
You could be the kind of person who uses the word “nook,”
who has time in their life to let the day age
with a cup of coffee, the kind of person
who probably knows personally the Sumatran farmer
who raised and roasted the beans in their hand-fired mug.
Or here, this dining room: Black Walnut trim,
broad French doors, tastefully framed advertisements
for Italian cafes. You could be the kind of person
who knows what risotto is and how to make it,
the kind of person who has capital O Opinions on wine.
The kind of person who calls it BarTHelona
and has any number of former lovers in the region
to stay with on a spur of the moment visit.
Or this backyard: lawn blending seamlessly into forest,
dappled light on the stream in the distance, cultivated wildness
of an English garden. Here you could be the kind of person
who spreads an antique quilt to read Tolstoy among the rosebushes,
the only person in bookclub who made it all the way through
the Very Important climate change book. The kind of person
who can do a rock-steady Crow Pose, who can actually
clear their mind when they meditate, a perfect blank slate.
None of the listings mention that you could purchase
any home as-is, turn key ready, and it will still be you
who walks through the door when the sale has closed.
You, with your predawn alarm and booked weekends,
forgotten coffee gone cold. You, with your bottom shelf wine
and penchant for burning everything you cook.
You, with your sexy vampire novels and cluttered mind,
no fantasy strong enough to fight the black hole pull of real life.
Frances Klein (she/her) is a poet and teacher writing at the intersection of disability and gender. She is the author of the chapbooks The Best Secret (Bottlecap Press, 2022) and New and Permanent (Blanket Sea 2022). Klein currently serves as assistant editor of Southern Humanities Review. Readers can find more of her work at https://kleinpoetryblog.wordpress.com/.