Carina

Carina, he’d say, as I left for work
in thrifted sweaters & pencil skirts.

He proclaimed it from our bed
where he lay like a pasha, plump,

unemployed. Carina—not lovely
or beautiful—just cute—was good

enough for me. I loved his language.
He didn’t love mine. Didn’t read

English, not even The Times.
He stuck to La Repubblica.

Once, we held hands at the Met,
gazed at a woman with outsized

breasts in neolithic bronze—
squatting—the label read.

I went so far as to demonstrate
when he asked what squat meant.

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Listen

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Hilary Sideris is the author of the poetry collections Calliope (Broadstone Books, 2024), Liberty Laundry (Dos Madres Press, 2022), Animals in English (Dos Madres Press, 2020), The Silent B (Dos Madres Press, 2019), Un Amore Veloce (Kelsay Books, 2019), and The Inclination to Make Waves (Big Wonderful LLC, 2016).