Up the Staircase Quarterly
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Archives
  • Nominations
  • Support
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Archives
  • Nominations
  • Support
Search

Kaydance Rice | ghazal as honeycomb inside a cardboard box

we ran out of soy milk last night, did you notice? i didn’t let
                 it go bad, it just did. i swear, i’m going to go to the store
 

tonight i just haven’t yet. i’ll go right now. i’ll pick us up
                 some canned corn and boxed potatoes. actually, check storage
 

i think we might still have some. and we’ll make meat
                 too — turkey. yeah it’ll be dry from sitting in the store
 

all day but it’ll be nice — i swear. it’ll be a real american
                 meal. and it won’t have flies in it this time — i swear. the stores
 

don’t put them in there — i already checked. the flies are only
                 at home. and i keep them in boxes, in the basement, in storage,
 

i know you’ve heard them buzzing before. they stay there
                 they only got into the fridge a couple of times. the store
 

​doesn’t have pesticide, i know you already checked. let’s
                 just stay here and dance. let’s just say it closed and stay stored. 

Kaydance Rice is a writer from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in the Taco Bell Quarterly, YoungArts Anthology, Cargoes, voicemail poems, Full Mood Magazine and elsewhere.
Picture
© 2023 Up the Staircase Quarterly
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Archives
  • Nominations
  • Support