Chrissy Martin
We Had That Conversation
Chrissy Martin
but you’re like
the cottage cheese he bought is still in the fridge still good
and they say
cremation or casket
& you’re like no I said cottage cheese
your grandmother sits in his La-Z-Boy crying her little body doing a bad job
at hiding the large dip in the seat
& you say
cremation is cheaper plus he always told us to put him in the backyard
for the crows
& Grandma says what happens when the Lord comes & there is no body so we sit there
silence and our coffee
wanting to tell her
we can’t afford heaven this time
Do You Have the Time?
because I ignored him on the train / platform / escalator /
because I put on lipstick that morning / because I put on heeled
boots instead of flat / too much hipsway / not enough eye
contact / you know there’s not even music in these headphones
/ you know they don’t even work / something to blame the
silence on / and when someone tries to say street safety / I hear a
choice between my safety and my sanity / and they say don’t
wear a ponytail / or don’t not wear a ponytail and / pretend
you’re on the phone / but actually / just look him in the eyes
/ ask him the time / no quarters to put between your knuckles
/ try nickels / not dimes / but even with a loud coin purse / still /
brown spit on the back on my sweater / mat of my hair /
spatter of bubbles on the back of my cold neck / a hand
gripping the thick of my arm / some hands think they’re so
important / pressing their fingers into the skins of figs or / the
snap of a thumbnail breaking into a ripe apple
Chrissy Martin is a PhD student at Oklahoma State University and a recent graduate from the Poetry MFA program at Columbia College Chicago. She also holds a BA in English from The University of Akron. She is the Poetry Editor for Arcturus and an Editorial Assistant for Cimarron Review. Her work has appeared in Amazon's Day One, Voicemail Poems, (b)OINK, Bad Pony, and Lit.Cat