My Parents’ Weekend Getaway
The inn is charming. Mom unpacks.
Dad is peckish, fond of snacks.
A crystal bowl of trail mix beckons.
Dad, who grabs a handful, reckons,
What a thoughtful B&B.
Mom shakes her head: That’s potpourri.
Sphinx Rolls Her Eyes and Asks the Muse
What problem could a poem fix?
You scoff, Ms. Riddle-and-Devour,
yet verse is bomb and balm—a mix.
“What problem could a poem fix?”
is asked by trolls and lunatics
who praise the wheel yet curse the flower.
What problem could your puzzle fix?
Piss off, Ms. Riddle-and-Devour.
Nicole Caruso Garcia’s OXBLOOD (Able Muse Press) won the International Book Award for narrative poetry. Her work appears in Best New Poets, Crab Orchard Review, ONE ART, Plume, Rattle, RHINO, and elsewhere. She is associate poetry editor at Able Muse and served as a board member at the annual conference Poetry by the Sea. Visit her at nicolecarusogarcia.com.