Elly Bookman
White Collar
Then it was my job
to scrub the underside
of the dish sink. At
the end of a shift, tip-
laden, lonely, starched
white shirt spotted
with soup and grease,
like a mechanic I lay
on my back and scoured
the metallic underbelly
where dinner morsels
and mold amounted
to a layer of black glue,
lips pressed in a line
of defense against
whatever came loose.
Later, in my kitchen
I soaked the shirt in
my own sink, hung it
to dry, then ironed
anew the one I’d worn
the shift before. Over
the radio, a voice said
the stocks had fallen
and fallen. Tomorrow
was the drip on the
tile floor I ignored.
Elly Bookman's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, The Florida Review, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the first annual Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from APR, of the Loraine Williams Poetry Prize from The Georgia Review, and has been featured in Rattle’s Poets Respond series. She writes and teach in my hometown of Atlanta. For more visit: ellybookman.com
Return to July 2018 Edition
Then it was my job
to scrub the underside
of the dish sink. At
the end of a shift, tip-
laden, lonely, starched
white shirt spotted
with soup and grease,
like a mechanic I lay
on my back and scoured
the metallic underbelly
where dinner morsels
and mold amounted
to a layer of black glue,
lips pressed in a line
of defense against
whatever came loose.
Later, in my kitchen
I soaked the shirt in
my own sink, hung it
to dry, then ironed
anew the one I’d worn
the shift before. Over
the radio, a voice said
the stocks had fallen
and fallen. Tomorrow
was the drip on the
tile floor I ignored.
Elly Bookman's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, The Florida Review, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the first annual Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from APR, of the Loraine Williams Poetry Prize from The Georgia Review, and has been featured in Rattle’s Poets Respond series. She writes and teach in my hometown of Atlanta. For more visit: ellybookman.com
Return to July 2018 Edition