The postcards at O’Hare
kind of blow so I take
a plane south for the lime
green palm trees the pearly
shells raise a little hell let
my hair divorce its part an
art I think being a mother
the secretions slash many-
eyed rooms slash snap
snicker pop my husband
on the stoop with a pillbox
me locked in the attic with
a laptop here the speaker
identifies a lack in herself
here the speaker correlates
matriculation with mentos
here the speaker posits
the polyp as benign here
she pitches a better life shaft
of light through the window
miser turned gold my mother
says ask for forgiveness not
permission which maybe she
told my daughter ashes on
an old orange couch remember
when we worried about falling
asleep in bed with a cigarette
those were the fucking days it
is dangerous to smoke in bed
some wise person would say ha
ha an orange fox no a brown
one jumping over a lazy red
dog my uncle’s tailpipe the
little hole where the push
pin went through the death
certificate this document
certifies that X once lived this
document certifies that X has
passed this document is a
blush-colored urn this document
has no postage if an abnormal
antelope eats an abnormal
cantaloupe if the scan shows
no abnormalities Iris texts me
a question and I can’t tell if
it is a question or a joke is it
a question or a joke the sherbet
floats in a bowl we all stand
around kicking the dirt and
talking about what a good
heart so and so had a good
heart what must be relegated
and or regulated I remember
Hillery’s mother didn’t want to
die because she didn’t want them
to weigh her that scale the final
number typed in by a stranger
Winner of the 2023 Tenth Gate Prize and a 2023 Alma Award, Nicole Callihan has two forthcoming poetry collections: chigger ridge (The Word Works 2024) and SLIP (Saturnalia 2025). Other books include This Strange Garment (Terrapin 2023) and the 2019 novella, The Couples. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Conduit, The American Poetry Review, and as a Poem-a-Day selection from the Academy of American Poets. Find out more at www.nicolecallihan.com.