pink jello

sometimes you just want to live
inside a block of pink jello or

sleep on one
at the very least

i kind of wonder
what it would be like to make
an entire city out of jello or maybe

a roller-rink
softer

i miss the days when
running into you was
akin to dessert

and everything melting all over
with only so much time to eat it

i miss the soft ruin that would come from
pressing ourselves together

and the colors
left on the plate

afterward

all that juicy debris
and cream

a good wife

i want to be a good wife, to keep
my slippers clean

the bed sated, the
cupboards full

i want to be a good wife, the
funny kind that makes you split
your pants when you are laughing

i want to be a good wife and listen
to all the atrocities and mundanities
with equal measure i want

to be a good wife and
adorn my husband with garlands of love
and feasts of pheasant

even when it is raining
and we have no money

i want to be a good wife
and tend to the little things
while he is away

sifting through the promises of grandeur

i want to be a good wife
and slide all the nuances of pain and disappointment
underneath the rug

i want to be a good wife
clad in fashionable skirts

and well-kept

juggling a hot sheet of cookies
and a martini as

he walks in the door

finally away

no more

40

i have this pact
with my friend johnny

that if neither of us
is hitched by 40

we are going to make babies

which is fucking funny
not because this sounds like an episode
from one of those really shitty sitcoms
but because

he is so devastatingly beautiful
that all our babies
would come out looking

like this sculpture

i know a girl

i know a girl
with a little curl

right in the middle of her
forehead

alright
no curl

but a world of petals
folding inward

to her gorgeous
soul

rose