I make you feed me
lines from Twilight when I am sad.
Bella, we’re making Italiano for you.
You fry garlic, oily ground beef. On the news,
Mark Madryga from Global TV tells us that the rain
will not cease. I will not cease
to utter say it, say it out loud,
when the bar is closing
and you tell me how much
our bill is.
You’re always reading these days. Facts carried
home and pinned to our walls like immortally
collected graduation caps, ironic and blue.
Tonight, you plate our dishes with red sauce,
crack the pepper thoroughly.
Say it, say it out loud.

Mallory Tater is the author of The Birth Yard (HarperCollins Canada, 2020), This Will Be Good (Book*hug, 2018) and the forthcoming collection Lockers are for Bearcats Only (Palimpsest, 2026). A recipient of Contemporary Verse 2’s Foster Poetry Prize, she lectures at ...