By Jen Karetnick

My mother peeled sections like bananas,
in rot-spotted arcs, revealing the muffled
trends of decades until she reached drywall,
flesh dented from thrown fists, the rough
shove of chairs, the smack of accordion
doors that she uncoiled the phone cord
beyond, back in the days when a kitchen
was a heart, its double arteries shuttered
even when left ajar, never fully open.

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Jen Karetnick is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, including Inheritance with a High Error Rate (2024), winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award. Forthcoming books include Organ Language (Lit Fox Books, September 2026) and Domiciliary (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, October 2026). The co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, she has work in Painted Bride Quarterly, Plume, South Dakota Review. jkaretnick.com.