Sarah Sloat

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK

Lisbeth has a bum leg she favors.
Her laugh is the gurgle of hens you hear
when the gate swings on the restaurant pen.
   
Lisbeth peddles onions and cabbages
Tuesdays by the sack.
   
She’ll cart them to your door, or bring them
down the cellar for a few cents more.
   
Lisbeth hollers onions
and the plumbing busts.
   
She hollers cabbage
and they pull the pins from the scaffolding.
   
Lisbeth shouts, and it’s like the day
we saw the neighbor boys
   
laugh themselves to cramps
watching the tar truck tip over.

Sarah Sloat grew up in New Jersey, where she attended university. Since then, she’s lived in China, Kansas, Italy and Germany, where she now works for a news agency. Sarah’s poems have appeared in Pebble Lake Review, West Branch and Rock Salt Plum, among other publications. Her favorite poets include Fernando Pessoa and Norman Dubie.