When Grief moved in the only room The Dandies had available was the space under the roll top secretary that skipped generations just to live in the basement / An entire paycheck pushed the desk from one unfinished basement right into another & if it were up to Grief in a basement the damn thing would stay / The Dandies play ragtime on low volume while book clubs discuss sacred reading practices like marginalia & apple picking / The giddy music of saloons waft down to the basement like a bottle of perfume spilled over a radiator / The cheery kind of music playing on perpetually in someone else’s watering hole but turns sour with a key change & extended exposure / Grief wonders if a pianola would make a comfortable vacation home / Perhaps happiness rolled on repeat would make for a healthy change of scenery / Circle your favorite lines in pastel gel pens & write words that sparkle on the periphery / Words like flambé & colonel & undersecretary get crossed out then forgotten / Having forgotten how to pray The Dandies encourage Grief to write through overdeveloped worry / Every morning they would bring down a tray of Chessmen & a strip of receipt paper rolled around a little green golf pencil / At first Grief could only draw out the faces of men lost at sea until after a while The Dandies noticed words scribbled across the faces that resembled a shopping list or a bargain with a higher consciousness / Don’t leave us alone in the shadows cast by no one the faces would plead between cookie crumbs & pink eraser smudges / Desks don’t often transmute into coffins overnight but The Dandies’ roll top secretary sure did try.
Bring Grief shortbread & a story
Take Grief for a walk around the neighborhood
RJ Equality Ingram works as a used bookseller for Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette. Their first collection of poetry The Autobiography of Nancy Drew is forthcoming from White Stag Publishing in early 2024. RJ received their MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College of California with concentrations in poetry & creative nonfiction. More work can be found in Phoebe Journal, Miniskirt Magazine & Citron Review among others. RJ’s cat Brenda lost a leg designing her memory palace.