Dear Fringe

Jangle on a flapper
girl's dress, yes, but also

her bangs and lashes.
Grass in the pasture

not yet grazed or flattened.
Shop talk, small talk.

Ropy belly fur
on a river-loving dog.

A marginal student's
marginal doodles. Tears.

The line of plastic caps
my grandmother twisted

onto toothpaste tubes
for forty hours a week

and forty years.
The receiving line:

handshake, handshake,
handshake, kiss. This.

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Copyright © 2011 Erin Murphy All rights reserved
from Subtropics
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission