THE POEM THAT I WROTE WHEN I WANTED TO
WRITE A POEM WITH THE WORD NUANCE IN IT

 

 

he didn’t grasp the functional distinctions between

grey and greige and gray and grey, but he had

researched why some cats eat dogs for a

late night snack

all that is dumb isn’t blond

it also comes in 118 other colors and flavors

that you can mix and match

he asked me out on a second date because

his last blond strung him along just

to get a free meal at Cracker Barrel

i prefer Olive Garden and a long

courting period

martyr that he was

my first husband told me

he would die for me

but he could never stand

the pain of a sore throat

and moaned in his sleep

when he had hemorrhoids

on the day that we escaped to the

blue shelter I left him the .38 but seized

the bullets before his sainthood sinned

I had taken two too many chances already

 

2HEL, aka Marissa Allen, is a surrealist and poet. Her work has been published in Haggard and Halloo, Fledgling Rag, and Megaera. She is the author of the chapbook Cultivating Darkness.