Poem of the Week: To Know Her

By Alexa Burns

What you thought you’d see
was a sunset
pinks oranges bloomed flowers
rather cold wanderlust clouds
blow by
thoughts racing in her mind
whipping by
one after another.

Small wooden boxes
within smaller
wooden boxes
disguise what hides behind
neutral brown
blinds every couple of feet
interchangeable indistinguishable
neutral brown blinds
surrounded by white lines of torn
household
semi cut grass a tree that needs rain

You try
dive in
she holds tightly
with her long painted fingertips
barely wrinkled
actually
just what you expected

and yet grasping on to the clear long stem
of a cup that has potential
she’s waited for moments like this
but shortly
a drop
a push
a fall
shattered into a million trickling pieces
cutting through
looking back at her like a distressed
reflection
you never thought you’d find.