Non-Identical Matching
Standing beside the overturned
carton of milk, you study the
pattern of pooling liquid, oblivious to
the hand-over-hand method by which we
sop, wring, repeat
until the tile reappears.
Sadly, I expected to recite them from memory
(matrilineal nursery rhymes,
an anthology of blues),
singing in unison while our arms
drafted a radical scale of syncopation,
the lilting sounds of the sea and
an assemblage of farm animals
surrounding the wails of a plastic horn,
the gypsy-oddity of a blue and white tambourine.
February 21st: in the aftermath of milk and nostalgia,
I study the theory of mercurial burdens,
your blood coursing through the annals of
medical science:
the science of misanthropic concerns;
the concern of the neuro-typical population,
their eventual extinction by the likes of you.
Rosemarie Dombrowski is the editor of the poetry journal Merge. She holds a PhD in American Literature and has been teaching at Arizona State University for the past ten years. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, most recently, Stickman Review and Salt River Review. She and her significant other live in Phoenix with her autistic son, Brendan.