Goodwill

Supple Blight

By Laine Derr

Goodwill

 I donated my heart, left it in a plastic bag

that once held Italian parsley. On a Tuesday,

during a pink dot deal, a stranger bought it

for 25% off. It hangs drying from a copper rack,

used sparingly on special occasions. Thinly sliced,

my heart pairs best with wild boar and red wine

bitter to the taste as I kiss your rust-stained lips.

—

A Supple Blight

Building a drey of hung-dry delicates,

her heart fancies itself a squirrel

bound by newly fallen snow, seams

twisting in the evening air, a supple blight

laced with pale truths – hollow and warm.

Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, Ted Kooser, and Robert Pinsky. Recent work appears or is forthcoming from Antithesis, ZYZZYVA, Portland Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.