Etiquette for Abandonment

Instructions for young ladies of breeding
on the best temperature at which
to boil your lover’s rabbit.
 
 
When the clock strikes half past hysteria,
lay on the floorboards.
Howl down the rafters.
 
Let grief gain properties of miracle.
Weep a fortnight’s worth of matches.
Light the burners that remain.
 
Over the flame, set your pot
of erstwhile fantasy to simmer.
Season liberally with the last of your dopamine.
 
Make too much your not so secret name.

 

Stir.                 Sing.                            Wait. 

 

 

Sara Biggs Chaney received  her Ph.D. in English in 2008 and currently teaches first-year writing at Dartmouth’s Institute for Writing and Rhetoric. Her first chapbook, Precipice Fruit, was released by ELJ Publications in October, 2013 and her chapbook, Anne Coulter’s Letter to Young Poets, is forthcoming from dancing girl press this summer. Sara’s work has recently appeared in Word Riot, SunDog Lit, Menacing Hedge, Whiskeypaper, and other places. You can catch up with Sara at her blog: sarabiggschaney.blogspot.com. 

 

 


 

 

SaraBiggs Chaney

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