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by monica brashears as the winner of the 2024 elsewhere chapbook prize her work can be found in carolina muse fish barrel review and storysouth among other publications she is a poetry reader for epiphany and edits reviews for the southern review of books she lives in queens with her husband though they also call south carolina home share this share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on mastodon opens in new window mastodon share on nextdoor opens in new window nextdoor share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest print opens in new window print share on reddit opens in new window reddit share on telegram opens in new window telegram share on threads opens in new window threads share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr share on whatsapp opens in new window whatsapp share on x opens in new window x like loading posted in poetry tagged caroline fairey meese leave a comment anniversary sonnet posted on september 18 2026 by perfectsublimemasters beginning with a line from etel adnan desire intensifies on the silver edge of the sea from the bed of long grass one can no longer imagine the body soft and hidden the sky s gaze becomes piercing there is nothing left to enter i quite like looking at the person i know is you some days i want to climb the lighthouse some days you want to climb the stone steps curving through the green hill we have nothing but time which makes intricate patterns of patience then washes over them starts again the ocean moves too shyly to notice the tide without the pleasure of hours or your freckled shoulder unkissed once my lips leave it i call out waist deep in clear water to the speck of you shaded surrounded in golden sand caroline fairey meese edits composition and literature textbooks at w w norton she is an mfa candidate in poetry at the brooklyn writers foundry her chapbook lowercountry was selected by monica brashears as the winner of the 2024 elsewhere chapbook prize her work can be found in carolina muse fish barrel review and storysouth among other publications she is a poetry reader for epiphany and edits reviews for the southern review of books she lives in queens with her husband though they also call south carolina home share this share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on mastodon opens in new window mastodon share on nextdoor opens in new window nextdoor share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest print opens in new window print share on reddit opens in new window reddit share on telegram opens in new window telegram share on threads opens in new window threads share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr share on whatsapp opens in new window whatsapp share on x opens in new window x like loading posted in poetry tagged caroline fairey meese leave a comment permission posted on september 17 2026 by perfectsublimemasters i always mistake it for persimmon do i need to give myself persimmon to palm it off other poets pages write a postcard to a friend asking how to pick a good one walk to the green market buy fresh watermelon juice from the pack of stained grinning kids in striped shirts practicing the cutest form of capitalism hear the graying woman behind me say she doesn t have dollar bills until they beg her to take one anyway they want to sell to share to see the ladle fill with sticky liquid until it s in the bellies of all their neighbors persimmon to scream watermelon juice in cacophonous kid joy persimmon to smile at the ponytailed girl selling sourdough loaves then smile again a little longer until both our cheeks broaden with conspiracy persimmon to fill up a tote bag with soft globes and cylinders all the sexual plant parts in the potential of saturday morning finally alone in my kitchen persimmon to make the metaphor biting the cheek of a soft fruit for the first time in the dusty sunlight and after that who knows how the day cracks yolk open caroline fairey meese edits composition and literature textbooks at w w norton she is an mfa candidate in poetry at the brooklyn writers foundry her chapbook lowercountry was selected by monica brashears as the winner of the 2024 elsewhere chapbook prize her work can be found in carolina muse fish barrel review and storysouth among other publications she is a poetry reader for epiphany and edits reviews for the southern review of books she lives in queens with her husband though they also call south carolina home share this share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on mastodon opens in new window mastodon share on nextdoor opens in new window nextdoor share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest print opens in new window print share on reddit opens in new window reddit share on telegram opens in new window telegram share on threads opens in new window threads share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr share on whatsapp opens in new window whatsapp share on x opens in new window x like loading posted in poetry tagged caroline fairey meese leave a comment anything left behind posted on september 17 2026 by perfectsublimemasters the red solo cup comes back three times before i stop putting it in the trash i find it beside the sink in unit 2b upside down on a paper towel gone stiff with old dishwater one side is dented inward a pale circle marks the grease and dust beneath its rim the leaseholder has been gone eleven days long enough for falcon turnovers to call his things abandoned and not quite long enough for the apartment to stop smelling like him i drop the cup into a contractor bag empty the cabinets photograph the refrigerator and pull two swollen drawers out by their faces beneath the stove mouse droppings glitter among dried grains of rice i leave the drawers against the wall for maintenance and take the four pictures falcon requires of every room the buyers want proof that nothing remains from any angle as though a tenant might flatten himself against the wall when he hears the camera shutter when i turn around the cup is back beside the sink same paper towel same ring in the dust devon he is in the bedroom removing glow in the dark stars from the ceiling with a paint scraper what did you take something out of my bag yeah mari i stole the priceless cup he does not look at me i pick it up the plastic is warm warm means a recently used appliance an animal nest bad wiring or a person who has not been gone as long as management claims it never means anything worth touching barehanded i bury the cup beneath cabinet liners and spoiled cereal cinch the bag shut and carry it into the hallway myself when i return the cup is waiting beside the sink devon has stopped scraping one green star remains stuck to the blade you see that i ask no the cup what cup i point he follows my finger and his expression changes oh he says one of those at falcon one of those covers everything our insurance policy does not mould growing in the shape of a hand a smoke detector that chirps after the battery and hardwire have both been removed water dripping upward from a ceiling stain a bedroom door that locks only when somebody says the former tenant s name there is a procedure photograph nothing record nothing remove it last should we call sloane devon asks you want the bonus he checks his cracked samsung it is 10 47 p m we have nine units left including the one aaron sloane marked priority and five hundred dollars each if glenhaven court is ready for the buyers at seven my rent is due at five my landlord does not accept spiritual complications in place of money i take the cup into the bathroom the medicine cabinet hangs open showing a rusted rectangle where the mirror used to be i leave the cup in the tub close the door and finish the kitchen two clean shapes interrupt the grime on the floor one for a narrow table another for a chair someone sat here often enough for the tile to keep the arrangement after everyone else stopped caring i sweep from the back wall toward the front door the broom draws the red cup into the dustpan on the fourth try i stop looking at it i wrap it in a bath towel shove it beneath cracked cabinet liners and a box of stale cinnamon toast crunch then take the bag straight to the compactor when i return only the pale ring remains beside the sink i open falcon s turnready app and photograph the kitchen personal property remaining i tap no animals present no occupancy verified the leaseholder s name appears beneath the question holt bernard i remember mr holt thin old man house shoes outdoors astros games on a radio held together with silver duct tape he corrected the announcers as if they had called him personally for help i tap vacant the loading wheel turns the work order refreshes unit 2b unknown occupant what was his name i ask devon has gone back to the stars whose the tenant he peels another constellation from the ceiling was there one i know there was i know something about a sister in beaumont a church van a broken hip the details sit behind a wall i have spent years helping management paint white his name is gone in the hallway the contractor bag remains wedged in the compactor mouth the red cup presses against the clear plastic filled now with something darker than the unlit room behind it i turn away before it can tip every apartment has a bruise pattern black arcs behind a recliner mean someone rocked while watching television grease above the bedroom door means the same hand touched the frame at the same height for years a clean square on a wall shows where a calendar kept the paint from fading people lie about how they live their walls usually give them away unit 3d belonged to a family with three children although the work order lists two three height charts climb the inside of the pantry door the smallest stops after six pencil marks somebody painted over the name but skipped the sanding so the letters remain raised beneath beige landlord paint i run my thumb across them lucy maybe don t devon says from the refrigerator don t what touch stuff when you re making that face i don t have a face you have several that one means you re about to steal garbage steal is dramatic i keep small things sometimes never jewelry cash medication documents or anything a reasonable person might return for only objects too useless to justify the space they occupy in a landfill a brass button a metro bus token a key with no lock a ceramic dog missing one ear i tell myself i am preserving evidence i never decide evidence of what devon opens the cabinet above the stove two child sized sneakers sit inside soles pressed together who stores shoes over a stove i look at the kitchen floor beneath one chair are two pale rectangles in the dirt put them there he sets the shoes on the counter under the chair he gives me a look but he crouches and slides them into the clean spaces they fit perfectly something inside the wall releases a long breath devon rises slowly all right definitely one of those my phone buzzes sloane status i type 5 complete on schedule his reply arrives before i can lock the screen sloane do not delay 6c buyers arrive 0700 no exceptions why does he care so much about 6c devon asks you know rich people if one toilet still has a tenant in it the whole building tastes wrong he laughs once i photograph the sneakers a little girl is sitting in the chair above them the picture shows only her knees and her hands folded in her lap a yellow plastic bracelet circles one wrist i lower the phone the chair is empty i delete the photograph turnready restores it i delete it again the picture returns with the girl s hands slightly apart as though she is preparing to stand fuck this unit devon says put that in the completion notes seriously mari we put the shoes back whatever it wanted we handled it he studies me did we his voice carries my mother s cadence not her sound but that upward pull at the end of a question when she has already decided i am lying for a second i am barefoot in a kitchen i cannot place holding a dead light bulb in both hands then unit 3d comes back around me my thumb hurts a brass button has appeared in my fist its edge pressed deep enough to break the skin i do not remember picking it up we reach the sixth floor at 1 18 a m half the fluorescent tubes are dead the survivors give the corridor the color of old teeth a woman sits cross legged in front of unit 6c she has spread rent receipts photocopied licenses school portraits utility bills and handwritten lists across the carpet a battery lantern glows beside her knee i know her face from somewhere a tenant meeting probably one of my mother s little revolutionaries she looks twenty four and tired enough to be forty you re marisol she says mari i know what she calls you devon glances at me i set down my tool bag you can t be here neither can half the people you cleared tonight apparently you have to move do you remember mr holt the name hits a locked door inside my head silver tape on a radio then nothing the woman watches the answer leave my face bernard holt she says he lived in 2b for sixteen years his sister esther keeps calling because the nursing home says no bernard holt ever listed her as an emergency contact devon shifts beside me you re nia i say her expression softens for half a second celia told you about me celia a saint a flower a woman in an old simon garfunkel song no closer than that i reach for the name and feel it slide away nia rises too fast scattering receipts jesus it s already started what has she points at 6c open the door i need you off the floor open it you re trespassing in a restricted work area you grew up here devon looks between us i laugh because the hallway has begun to tilt i grew up in six apartments everybody thinks one of them explains me this one does the elevator bell rings aaron sloane steps out with two guards from blackstone protective services he wears a navy falcon polo tucked into khakis and the expression of a man arriving to correct the version of events poorer people have produced without him nia he says we discussed this you discussed it i declined this building is under transfer order people still live here not on this floor she sweeps an arm toward the documents because you re deleting them sloane notices devon listening take five the guards do not move he sighs glenhaven needs eight million dollars in structural repairs the elevators fail twice a month the fire panel is thirty years out of date sewage backs into occupied units the buyer is assuming those costs the buyer is turning it into student housing the buyer is keeping it standing after throwi...