Hill of Beans

Poughkeepsie offers sidewalks and street corners
that pocketknife into me and I am left
wanting so badly to tell you we could have
been good; it could have worked out; it was all
about timing. A ham sandwich reminds me
of New Years, a bad cold, and that day
you stopped loving me. Unable to get out of yourself
and see the rainbows on the wall, you said
someday you’ll hate me; your words levitate
and latch onto my spine. Now you are
marrying her, and having the baby. I can fantasize
about catching your profile in a restaurant,
about letting some man in the butcher shop sweep
me away. I can mope through old conversations
and utter the right things. I could say
let me kiss you one last time.  But I won’t.

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Amy Nawrocki is  a poet and teacher living in Hamden, CT. She teaches English and Creative
Writing at the University of Bridgeport. her poems have appeared in such
journals as War, Literature, and the Arts, The Powhatan Review, The Shit
Creek Review, Modern English Tanka, Atlas Poetica, and The Litchfield
Review. She was a finalist for the 2007 Codhill Press Chapbook Competition,
and her manuscript Potato Eaters will be published by Finishing Line Press.