Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
Natasha Writes Back
In your best story I’m in red
heels that get caught in the cobbles
of my city.
You pluck my foot out
by the ankle
like a beet;
we go back to my mother’s apartment.
My mother’s apartment
is the size of a chessboard
she sleeps with a rook and a Gypsy.
I’m studying dentistry.
I put on the tea kettle.
In thirty years you return;
you’re still a writer.
I’ve remained the same age but
here’s a summary of what’s changed:
We’re in the EU,
I’m a dental attorney.
You left your wife and your children.
We go back to my mother’s apartment.
She should be dead by now.
I put on the tea kettle.
Marta Balcewicz’s poems, stories, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Offing, Catapult, AGNI, Pithead Chapel, PRISM International, and elsewhere. She lives in Toronto and can be found at martabalcewicz.com. (updated 2/2018)