local_library Useful Things

by Lisa Kaufman

Published in Issue No. 257 ~ October, 2018

She finds a pair of hands

when digging in the yard

they are severed at the wrist

sitting in the middle of the dirt

like her neighbor

who sits on the property line

tearing up the tulips

she takes the hands before the neighbor does

wraps them in paper packaging

the same paper from the cat food delivery

which she uses to wrap parsley and shoes

tucking the package under her shirt

and cramming it in with all her stuff

it’s backed up to the ceiling

where a cart and step ladder hang

off bungee cords

and buckets sit balanced with four gallons

since Hurricane Sandy

including dried cement

colored bread tabs

and wheels to a bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lisa D. Kaufman’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Main Street Rag, Ibbetson Street, Constellations, Soul-Lit, Wilderness House Literary Review and elsewhere. She was a recent participant in the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference in Manchester, Vermont. She is also a watercolorist whose paintings have been shown in Boston and Cambridge.