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Published: Tue Feb 20 2018
Eva Lundsager, Were now like (detail), 2021, oil on canvas
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)

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