pest-control for the broken hearted
Kristy Bowen
Down the hall, the cats grow restless
in a room filled with floral dresses
and indiscretion. The bits of a life,
photographs and unused stamps and busted
luggage we crawl into at night. Where do we
put the broken window we crashed through.
Or the Christmas tree that smashed to the floor
one December night, scattering ornaments and tinsel
we didn’t clean up until spring. How to pack
everything we’d need when we didn’t know
where we were going except that
we could take everything or nothing at all.
Could open our mouths and holler down
the corridors that wound back to the same
exact location in every single house.
The same mouse whose heart we tried to stop
with poison and traps is the same mouse
that hides in the lobby of the heart.
That chews its way through and through.
A writer and book artist, Kristy Bowen creates a regular series of chapbooks, zines, and artist books She blogs about writing and art at dulcetly: notes on a bookish life .and runs dancing girl press and studio, an indie press and design studio. Bowen is the author of twelve collections of poetry/prose/hybrid work, both traditionally published and DIY, including the recent SEX & VIOLENCE (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), AUTOMAGIC and ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MONSTER (dancing girl press & studio, 2022).