1 Poem

Stacy Boe Miller

Giveth

Here are dark eye circles dressed

as country ponds, a coffee pot dripping

expectations, and blue aphids sparkling

in the tangles of your hair. Here is a PowerPoint

presentation on whether men find your body

acceptable. A fistfight in your kitchen,

a fruit basket of the last twenty years, and a yoga pose

guaranteed to make you cry. Here is a drunk-text

and a list of tasks you can complete

while grieving. Here is a coffee shop called Don’t Think

about Dying. Here you aren’t allowed to

say to your father. Here are his enduring fingernails.

Here is the person you thought you’d be

by forty curled up inside an orange peel.

Here is a horse eating grass

growing up from a buried dog and

a vase of moth wings pretending

to be flowers.

"Giveth" was a finalist for the 2018 Up North Poetry Prize.