We’re All Turning Twenty

written by Charlotte Beck

The way teenagers buy fuzzy pets

for comfort

but the responsibility is worse

It’s eating

your wicker throw-blanket basket

it’s hungry and cold

so you have to pick it up

You hold onto people

It’s better

to be cold than alone

You keep calling high school sweetheart

She misses you

you feel worse tired worse worse

A piano key makes a hammer

hit sound

You press

the pedal to force it smoother

smooth smooth, smoother

make it smooth

Plastic peony imitation growth

to brighten the kitchen

you make muffins your mom made

for breakfast before a field trip

They don’t rise you added too much

and when you try again

the sugar coats your mouth

they are too sweet worse worse sweet fake

plants fake plants your fridge reeks

The fitted sheet is unstuck

In your ears a woman

screeches a guitar vomits

white walls are blinding

and you recite half the Hail Mary

hoping that someone across the coast

calls you back