excerpt from the corpse of a young maid

By Marlowe Ryan

Mistress, I’ve nothing for you I’ve depleted all of the static in my muscles lunging from building to building walking into walls, playing your music on the jukebox and fading back into the street

I killed time waiting for you in the convertible squeezing my ring finger until the tip burst open like a bottle of champagne I wanted to see if it could be done before I wasted more time helping you find ways to hide diamonds in your bra

We’ve gone around collecting cobblestone to fill in the holes of your victory garden and waited for the tires to come undone to collect the rubber for your protest dress for the press conference A car flipped over—my sister was inside

I killed birds for taking your melody cooked them and canned them when the ration card was full swam in luxury until my blood ran gold and told I’d weigh down the plane If I could just get it out, one gaping golden finger at a time

Mistress, I’ve fed your cats with the last crystal cavity filling left in my skull I left every key and clue to where I hid the booze and food exiting with enough power in me to flip the radio on and a skeleton for when I want to haunt your front door