March 2021
Bio Note: I am a poet and fiction writer who currently serves on the Alaska Writers Guild
Board of Directors. In addition to Verse-Virtual, my work has recently been accepted by The Daily Drunk
("In Punxsutawney, Phil Sees His Shadow," Feb. 7, 2021), The New Verse News ("Major," Jan. 29, 2021) and
The Cabinet of Heed ("Harmattan," forthcoming March 2021). I am now preparing to publish an illustrated
collection of short fiction, The Birthday Picture: and Other Stories, through Red Sweater Press this fall.
Cookbook
with thanks to Julia O’Malley
A cookbook sparks a conversation
about culture & climate change
that circles through privilege, rights,
& blame, back to the question of what,
exactly, is to be done about all this.
What other wisdom might we unearth,
doors & mouths might be opened,
by hunger on a holiday that celebrates
connection & creation?
Maintenance
I arrive tired, after work,
at the oil change place,
to find the front door locked
(due to wind) and the name changed
to “Diamond Plated Automotive,”
as if it were a giant, public
piece of jewelry, and not
a home for grease monkeys,
disguised as a place of business.
Inside, the girls answer the phones,
breathe the shop’s new name
into their receivers so fast,
it seems like I’m the last to know,
this isn’t Mr. Lube, anymore.
I don’t know if the transition
was driven by an effort to localize,
or simply the whim of a new owner
looking to start with a clean slate —
except for the old signs on the wall,
in the windowsill, and on the storefront.
My silent irritation at this departure
from my quarterly routine
is enough to make me wonder
if I’ve gotten too comfortable
in my prejudices, and this
old town of mine — if it’s time
to move on, expect the unfamiliar
in a way that keeps the mind open,
performs that necessary maintenance
on the ever-rumbling soul.
©2021 Caitlin M. S. Buxbaum
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL