You Know What I Mean
Rennie Ament
You know about rows of cans
You’ve been to a grocery store
You’ve seen the yellow teeth of corn
You get where I’m coming from
I’m sorry I forgot the wheel
I’m sorry to hear your borzoi died
I’m sorry to learn the beaver
Restoration project failed
If we could try again
If we could detect and plug that leak
Then what happens next?
Then how am I supposed to feel?
I love you mom and dad?
I love you dad and dad?
I dad you mom I dad you life
I dad the eternal hole of life
You get where I’m coming from
You’ve been to a grocery store
You’ve seen the yellow teeth of corn
You get where I’m coming from
I’m sorry I forgot the wheel
I’m sorry to hear your borzoi died
I’m sorry to learn the beaver
Restoration project failed
If we could try again
If we could detect and plug that leak
Then what happens next?
Then how am I supposed to feel?
I love you mom and dad?
I love you dad and dad?
I dad you mom I dad you life
I dad the eternal hole of life
You get where I’m coming from
Rennie Ament is the author of Mechanical Bull (CSU Poetry Center, 2023). Her work has appeared in West Branch, The Literary Review, Poetry Northwest, Bennington Review, DIAGRAM and elsewhere. She lives in Maine.