The Glacier
Issue Three
Winter 2024

I AM THE PERSON YOU AVOID AT A PARTY

Needless heedless
               bringing along an uncle to crash 
Singing beside the piano
               escaping into the yard
Goatlike eating a snack
               spraying exclamation points across the room
Perfect opportunity to discuss
               your evil politics
Strips down to socks
              weeps about mother 
(We all weep about our mothers—that’s okay)
             gives everyone a nickname
Hopping on a table
             hopping off
Hopping on again
             puts head through wall
Teaches a dog to bark
             (when Emily Dickinson said
I’m nobody who are you
              she meant me)
So what’s the problem? Really, what?
              I’m not exactly Samson
Leaning against a pillar like a well-oiled walrus
              before pulling the temple down
I’m blaming everything on
             this damn turtleneck.

Just Business

It should be none of their business—
              my business,
which isn’t even a business.
               It’s not making me money,
that’s for sure. Anyway,
               who said they could put
their fingers into any of 
               our businesses?
They have enough business.
               And now, just watch,
everyone is going to buy 
              what they’re selling.
It’s our business
              but since the beginning of time
they’ve made it theirs.

Lee Upton’s comic novel Tabitha, Get Up appeared in May 2024. Another novel, a literary mystery, will be out in May 2025. Her books include her seventh collection of poetry, The Day Every Day Is (Saturnalia Books 2023).

BACK

ISSUE tHREE HOME