I could always settle
for next
to nothing.
I could live
in the basement
with a bed and a chair,
a chipped pitcher,
enough Swan matches
to light the gas,
a dim mirror
containing a girl
who’s reading and chewing bread.
Ruth Holzer’s poems have appeared
recently in California Quarterly,
Connecticut River Review, Slant and
Poet Lore. She is the author of two
chapbooks, The First Hundred Years
and The Solitude Of Cities (Finishing
Line Press) and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Virginia.