The Edge

A poem

A photo illustration of a line drawing of a table with flowers on it, hanging upside down, on a sepia-toned sheet of torn paper
Photo-Illustration by Gabriela Pesqueira. Source: Sepia Times / Getty
Time and again, time and again I tie
My heart to that headboard
While my quilted cries
Harden against his hand. He’s bored—
I see it. Don’t I lick his bribes, set his bouquets
In water? Over Mother’s lace I watch him drive into the gored
Roasts, deal slivers in his mercy ... I can feel his thighs
Against me for the children’s sakes. Reward?
Mornings, crippled with this house,
I see him toast his toast and test
His coffee, hedgingly. The waste’s my breakfast.