Sweepstake

I’m ready for the ritual
where I get crowned a
crone. I want something
to be given, some sort of
training device to help
me go straight from
maiden to mare. I know
I need a new bra, but that
can’t be it again. What’s
internal once was magic,
but I outlived all that for
better or worse. Inside,
your head is the same,
Debbie Harry says, but
there are more engrossing
cubbyholes for absorption.
Children in Italy just may
leave me a glass of  wine.
Could I learn to fill socks
with the hopes and dreams
of unfamiliar families for
morsels of rye and ham?
It is more uplifting than
keeping this empty house.

Maura Way’s poems have previously appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Verse, The Chattahoochee Review, and Hotel Amerika among others. Her debut collection ANOTHER BUNGALOW was released by Press 53 in 2017.