Swallowed My Regrets

Ladylike in the mores of 1955
If you committed sexual intercourse
You were sentenced to marriage

***

Mail-Ordered

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaThanks to the internet, men can see aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapotential brides online right now HRF.org

—I can only stare as she says—

paid he wants
I fly we marry
falls for my photo

—I feel it in my eye
as tangled as knotted tinsel
in a visualized future,

mash my lips to calculate
a bride price.
I swallow watching

frothy clouds embraced
in sky —I fly
longing to interpret as she
above a whisper says,

no, no,
no afraid,
he wants, we marry

—my
heart thumps—

as wind rises
landing
she moves

delivered.

***

Carol Levin has published two full volumes of poetry Confident Music Would Fly Us to Paradise (MoonPath Press 2014) and Stunned By the Velocity (Pecan Grove Press 2012). Chapbooks, Red Rooms and Others (Pecan Grove Press 2009), Sea Lions Sing Scat (Finishing Line Press 2007). Forthcoming, The Poeming Pigeon: Love Poems Anthology. She’s an Editorial Assistant at Crab Creek Review and teaches The Breathing Lab / Alexander Technique, in Seattle.