Leigh Stein is the author of the chapbooks How to Mend a Broken Heart with Vengeance (Dancing Girl Press), Least Inhabited Island II (h-ngm-n), and Summer in Paris (Mondo Bummer). Her work has also appeared in Best of the Web 2010 (Dzanc Books). She lives in Brooklyn, where she curates the Poets & Puppets reading series, and teaches drama to children.
In the future, I'm your mother.
My name is Carol.
I hold you when you want me
to and I don't ask
questions.
I never call your name
when I lose sight of you
in public.
In the future, we're discreet.
We live forever
or seem to.
We upholster our lives with secrets
and our holsters are concealable.
When you want me
to, I hold you
like a wife
in Valparaiso.
You say,Tell me somethingelse, and I do
all sorts of tricks.
