Remember

when every second had its own soundtrack

And the future might still have been

a platinum record

***

The purple dress holds her

the way I imagine he does.

Around her curves,

Deliberate but gentle,

Each finger and stitch

Outlining the woman beneath

As if she were a painting brought to life

And neither man nor thread

Could quite believe it.

***

Millennials, they say,

like their charcuterie boards.

And why wouldn’t we?

An artful arrangement of the savory

and the succulent,

the salty and the sweet.

Bite-sized portions that don’t overwhelm

yet still sate our hunger.

A morsel of order for those with disorders.

We craft our boards anxiously before guests arrive,

laying down meat and cheese with deft fingers.

A charcuterie board never fails to impress;

the same cannot be said of ourselves.

We are weary children, having seen too much

without the needed preparation.

The charcuterie board is a magic carpet

upon which we can visit places that only exist

in the stories we’ve been told,

the memories we’ve romanticized.

We set them up lovingly and devour them slowly,

relishing each bite as we watch the world crumble like

the cheese on our crackers.

Ariel Zukowski has always loved reading and writing poetry. As a hobby in high school, she would memorize poems and recite them to anyone in her immediate vicinity (not annoying at all). She lives with her husband and two daughters in Michigan. Her Twitter handle is @ariel_zukowski.