Contributor: Holly Day

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it’s not that I missed you when you left
it’s just that I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things
you left behind, all the dependent
little creatures in your house, left to fend for
themselves, trapped in their fishbowls
behind locked and closed doors

I keep thinking about your goldfish, picture them
floating lifeless in their bowl, the long-nosed
dolphin fish I picked out for your
tank, the baby iguanas posed on their perch
waiting for
their handful of crickets, the cats you adopted pawing
frantic at the doorknob
waiting for you to come home. I wish

you had left me a key.


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Holly Day's newest poetry book, Ugly Girl, just came out from Shoe Music Press.