Christina Kallery
Just When You Thought
it was safe to sink into middle age like a memory
foam mattress — pleasant dinners, bird watching,
colonoscopies. Into sags and scars, softening
jawlines, higher premiums and thread count sheets.
Into the end of all that errant wanting to be loved
by someone wrong, make outs on a stiff Ikea couch,
a night you'll never tell your therapist about
but at least you got to touch them one last time.
Into the season of decency and measured risk,
of those pharmaceutical ad couples strolling
on a beach, teeth white as tombstones — their love
sensible, assured and steady, like waves stroking
the shore's pale shoulder, far from the jagged rocks
where your heart has wrecked again.
Bio
Christina Kallery is the author of Adult Night At Skate World, now in its 2nd edition from Dzanc Books. Her poetry has appeared in Rattle, ONE ART, Gargoyle and other publications, and has been included in several anthologies, including Best of the Web and Respect: The Poetry of Detroit Music. She currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.