So Well Deserved
by Emily Pérez
Who gets to be beautiful and who
gets an easy body. Who moves
pain free. What are things
that don’t haunt me: hands, feet,
paychecks, a flotation device.
Who gets spades
who gets pebbles. Who chews mint
and who chews marbles. Who gets baskets
and droves and troves of options.
Who holds swarms or storms. Who married
misery. Who kept certainty
of a sad life in a skirt pocket, who
wore skirts with pockets, had letters
from past lovers in hand, who
wanted to hold one orb of herself
aloft as long as possible, keeping it
free from contaminants, moods.
Who got screwed.
Who screwed
up. Who loosed the screws
sang songs about herself.
gets an easy body. Who moves
pain free. What are things
that don’t haunt me: hands, feet,
paychecks, a flotation device.
Who gets spades
who gets pebbles. Who chews mint
and who chews marbles. Who gets baskets
and droves and troves of options.
Who holds swarms or storms. Who married
misery. Who kept certainty
of a sad life in a skirt pocket, who
wore skirts with pockets, had letters
from past lovers in hand, who
wanted to hold one orb of herself
aloft as long as possible, keeping it
free from contaminants, moods.
Who got screwed.
Who screwed
up. Who loosed the screws
sang songs about herself.
Emily Pérez is the author of What Flies Want, winner of the Iowa Prize; House of Sugar, House of Stone; and two chapbooks. She co-edited the anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. A CantoMundo fellow and Ledbury Critic, she’s received support from Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf, The Community of Writers, and others. She teaches high school in Denver, where she lives with her family. Find more at www.emilyperez.org.