~
Grudge Day
Old grudges for new with ten percent markup. Hard to fit all of them into my car. They’re heavy. They’re clunky. They stink of dead fish. I wrangle my grudges and tie down the trunk with a bungee cord. I barely clear the speed bump in the parking lot. Gravel, bent nails, broken glass—a place you don’t want to wear sandals. I see I’m not the only one with a Nobody-Loves-Me crowbar. There’s someone else with an I-Was-Humiliated hydrant. Concrete chunks of Overworked. Broken conveyor belts of Underpaid. Iron Maiden coffins of Wrongly Accused. I want a more portable grudge—an I’ll-Get-Him-Next-Time toaster or You-Ate-My-Plums-You-Bastard lockable mini-fridge—but all I see is steam punk misery. At last, I understand the goody-two-shoes spiel of letting go. Not because it will make me a better person (I doubt that!) but because I’m wearing sandals. I dump my grudges on the lot and start my car. Everybody yells a You-Can’t-Do-That group grudge against me as I drive off, suddenly light and nimble.
~
Sara Backer
Sara Backer’s first book of poetry, Such Luck (Flowstone Press 2019) follows two poetry chapbooks: Scavenger Hunt (dancing girl press)and Bicycle Lotus which won the 2015 Turtle Island chapbook award. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Art and reads for The Maine Review. Recent or forthcoming publications include Tar River Poetry, Slant, CutBank, Lake Effect, Land Luck, Crannóg, Poetry Northwest, and Kenyon Review.