We Are Not Response For Any Belonging : Bronwen Tate
WE ARE NOT RESPONSE FOR ANY BELONGING
(a sign posted on the New York to Philadelphia bus)
When they got lost the exact same way I had, I lost patience and blamed Final Fantasy. Having forgotten, he wore hip white shoes. Do I look like a Mafioso? It’s hard to ruin cheese. We all turned to face the newness of it. Like the way he said forgetting to turn off the light can lead to vivid dreams.
She finally called me. He hailed a cab for Chinatown.
More wholesome the following day, the smell of their kitchen unsettled me. Being small, they clamored. At the table, over trifles. People of all races tell me how beautiful she is. They’re converted. Chinese baby backwashes cream cheese into her water bottle. Misplaces high heeled shoes.
She meant: by what right do you lay claim to the breaking of the glass? Brought home bagels.
In accordance with Pennsylvania law, by the clergy of the Church of Love, without mention of God. You’re allowed to change, the aunt inquired after. Disbelieving. Is it fragile enough? Look at the camera, and
you three look at the bride. Points of heels sink into the damp earth. Baby sucks a strawberry.
Put her slip on inside out. They stood on a table and yelled: let‘s do this every year!
There was already a line; he said: when I get to Canal street… Doors shut, we examined the competition. I sent them to the WaWa for drinks and snacks. Caramels that tasted like flour. Too tired to help surround, they saw him counting the money. With enough delay, there was nothing to refund.
She spoke opaquely into the phone. He swore in English to make sure everyone would understand.
| He withheld. If for him a stone, then pebble If he shaped with lathe, Eclat des fetes, deer could surround this cottage in Maine. For her, it was a turning into tunnel |
Bronwen Tate was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada and grew up in Portland, Oregon. She lived in Italy for two years, three months of which were spent in a small apartment recovering from a vespa-inflicted broken ankle. Her poems have appeared in Lungful!, horse less review, and Brown Literary Review.