Print This PostCrooked
I wanted a crooked man.
I panned for a crooked man.
I tea spooned out
trenches until I dug up
my crooked man.
Now I have a corner
on a crooked man,
a crooked house.
I got crookider
And crookider,
out of whack.
Nakeder than cheese,
clothed with nakedness.
Tilt and spin,
I let in every draft.
No matter.
Nothing straightens
any of us out.
Nothing goes
according to plan.
Unless the plan is a crooked plan.
___________________________________________
Lee Upton’s most recent book is Swallowing the Sea: On Writing & Ambition Boredom Purity & Secrecy (Tupelo). In 2014 a collection of her short stories, The Tao of Humiliation, is forthcoming from BOA Editions. She is a professor of English and writer-in-residence at Lafayette College.
Photo credit: Cece Ziolkowski.
Copyright © 2013 by Lee Upton. Used with permission of the author.
