Polterguests
“Immutable law of the universe No. 1514234: When one has guests on a holiday weekend, the plumbing will misbehave. Grrrr.”
—Maryann Corbett, Facebook post
An immutable law of the cosmos
(Number One-five-one-four-two-three-six)
states, when guests come around for the weekend,
every faucet’s in need of a fix,
every window sash jams in its housing,
every just-installed lightbulb now flickers,
every cocktail you mix tastes like cough drops,
every gets-on-great couple now bickers,
every recipe’s missing one item
(which you swear you secured at the store),
and it’s hell—right until the last guests go—
then it all functions fine, as before.
In response to an urgent submissions call for a scientific poetry anthology on the theme of The Cell, with a single spot remaining, desperately seeking a poem about the endoplasmic reticulum
A Roman in his ancient cubiculum
knew nothing of the Endoplasmic Reticulum
and though now we’ve discovered Endoplasmic Reticula
about them I still know nothing in particula