Paper Year Lease

Jake Morrow

The house looked crooked,

compared to the neighbours’

at least. I hadn’t noticed

then – wasn’t a poet yet –

but the wife had, being

every bit the child of

carpentry and divorce

From the opposite shore

you could see the whole

cityscape and confirm it.

"See!" she said, “There! See!”

and I saw our little rental

house bending into itself

I was taught to build a fire

square like a house, paper

crumpled in the middle

to start, with room to breathe

but once you see something,

sometimes, I suppose...

So I’d sit at my desk,

looking through the door

frame to the opposite wall

watching every jamb and beam

jut out in her own direction

and I began to write poems

and I crumpled paper for fire.

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Want to read more Jake Morrow? He has a brand new poem in Issue 3 which you can buy right here.

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