once never future husbands grilled
burgers and explained internal combustion,
while stroking red and black Craftsman drills
and popping Viagra and statins.

once would-be wives binged
on The Real Housewives of New Jersey and elsewhere
and dabbed dirt scent prettily
behind thrice-pierced ears.

once never future husbands expired
mightily in designer garages and hungered
for a stout yellow-naped Amazon parrot
to savor their words

as once would-be wives
used to once almost.
————

Carla Sarett’s recent poems appear in Blue Unicorn, Trampoline, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and elsewhere. She awaits publication of her debut (comic) novel, A Closet Feminist in 2022, and, later this year, a novella, The Looking Glass. Carla lives in San Francisco.