That’s not a naked man in your kitchen.
That’s a naked man in your kitchen making you lunch.

These are the bright, sharp gladioli leaves
of now.

Let’s call it a pattern to make it sound familiar.

“Come on, throwing yourself against the window
is better than folding the laundry?”

You place a hand on my shoulder
and say, “Sweetheart, you’re a mess.

But you won’t be a mess forever.”

---

Mike Puican’s debut book of poetry, Central Air, was released by Northwestern Press this August. He has had poems in Poetry, Michigan Quarterly Review, and New England Review among others. He won the 2004 Tia Chucha Press Chapbook Contest for his chapbook, 30 Seconds and was a member of the 1996 Chicago Slam Team. He teaches poetry to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men at the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Center and St. Leonard’s House in Chicago.