Melissa Tuckey

The Last Time We Took a Family Vacation

The other night when my drunk aunt
flashed her tits at the whole family

we were horrified and when her daughter
yelled you're stupid mom it broke our hearts

but tonight at the bar across from our condo
we find ourselves clapping along

The bar is full of sober people on vacation
lonely in their new clothes

and no one can take their eyes off Aunt Celeste
in her beach shorts and bowling shirt

rocking back and forth clapping her hands
yelling oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah

Oh Piano

          After John Cage

I've lassoed the enormous
weight of you
shipped you across
the continent
carried you up three flights of stairs

but still I do not know
what you eat

Whose Woods These Are

The noise of the bee was delight. Before Burning Forest Lane.
Before Wild Ginger Court. The meadow before the complex.
Humming its wheels or mowing its Sunday. What passes for
religion. Before trillium and despair.

Narcissists preening the hedgerow

An exhibition of windows

His house is in the village though