for Sylvia Plath (after “The Applicant”)
Can you separate lights from darks,
gabardine from linen?
Too much bother? I cannot care
if your hands are
warm like Georgia hot springs
capable of sparing my feet
the Sisyphean walk over broken
crayons and wine glasses,
the laundry room of dog and dust.
Do you know how to make coffee,
float a river of cream
in my capacious cup?
Forget the sugar and call
my name with an accent auf Deutsch?
But speak only ein bisschen,
patch the noise of domestic bliss
with a steady pour and two clinks of ice.
Will you wait for the repairs,
bury the hamster with the holey
blanket, behind the dying Holly?
Never mind if you dig too shallow,
I want a wife, too.
Sandra Faulkner is the Director of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at BGSU. Her poetry appears in places such as Gravel, Literary Mama, and damselfly. She authored two chapbooks, Hello Kitty Goes to College (dancing girl press, 2012), and Knit Four, Make One (Kattywompus, 2015). Her memoir in poetry, Knit Four, Frog One, was published by Sense Publishers (2014). She lives in NW Ohio with her partner, their warrior girl, and a rescue mutt.
Image: “Keep It” by Bobbi Le’ Rae Valentin
Pine Hills Review 