Take me to the strip mall
of your stingiest imagination
where donut shops
and nail salons
beam electric
Under a hazy radio static chorus of crows
Tell me I’m your favorite Netflix limited series
the Pillsbury crescent roll
of your childhood meal mortuary
the puff n stuff in your thistled memory
a name I get to keep long after
Any Thought Of You Is
your scent dies off in my throat
Is your grandmother all there, I wonder
as we drive to the McDonald’s
down the main road
to retrieve morning oatmeals
for her and her new boyfriend
I keep it to myself
And it doesn’t actually matter
so long as she smiles at me
and carries on
about her Donna Summer dance parties
This is a stain I will wear
Something ruined
value cheapened
that I will covet and cherish
It’s pretty time
Reruns on bone dry
confined to absorb you
Alexandra Naughton is the author of ten poetry collections. Her first novel, American Mary, won the 2015 Mainline contest by Civil Coping Mechanisms and was published in 2016. Her work has been featured in Dusie, Sporklet, Dryland, Maudlin House, carte blanche, and elsewhere. She writes Talk About It, a newsletter on Substack, and sometimes posts on Instagram.
Image: “Behind the Buildings” by Daniel Nester
Pine Hills Review 