United States, (b. 1972)
Still Life
- Routine, the gravity keeping dishes on shelves,
- salt inside porcelain shakers. It locks the liquor
- cabinet after three gin and tonics, despite my urge
- to drink until I’m dazzled by the truth:
- I don’t even like gin.
- The necessity of order wakes me every morning
- in the dark to scramble your three eggs, no pepper,
- fry four slices of low-sodium bacon and listen
- to the sound of you, dear husband,
- grinding my work between your teeth.
- And now, a small curd of impossible yellow
- clings to the corner of your thin lips.
- An advertisement for dish soap slips quietly
- from the neat folds of today’s newspaper,
- and I hear the bone-crack snap of my sensibilities.
- Today, I will press my hand into the black iron skillet,
- my face shimmering across the hot fat of a pig’s belly.
- I will hear the sizzle and pop of cauterized flesh,
- gold band sinking into the deep meat of my finger,
- watch as a garland of blisters honors its burial.
- Or I crush the traitorous hand between my knees,
- feel the bite of a diamond’s head break through skin.
- I will focus on white plates against blue linen,
- the coagulated smear of ketchup on your plate,
- the useless wooden bowl of polished lemons
- and this still life’s practiced grin.
About the Poet:
Gina Stratos, United States, United States, (b. 1972), is a poet, freelance writer & editor. She is a mother and student at Truckee Meadows Community College with plans to continue her degree in English at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is currently working on her first collection of poetry.
Stratos, originally from San Francisco, is now living with her family in northern Nevada. She enjoys collecting words, sipping buttery Chardonnay, and correcting other people’s grammar.
Her work can be read in The Meadow, Door Is a Jar, Rabid Oak, and Dark River Review. She’s a highly regarded student who has been a teaching assistant in English class for Professor Mai Anh McMurray and has been a tutor in the Writing Center with TLC Coordinator Michelle Montoya. [DES-04/22]
Additional information:
- Gina Stratos – @MissSpokenWord