Delancey-Essex

The cooling vegetables are stand-ins 

for our ideas of Rome. I do not mind the cigarette stink 

or the sticky bottoms of my shoes because they are cosmopolitan. 

Every day I have to wake up and live. Isn’t it all so tiring? 

Somehow I’m meant to keep track of the days rolling

past me and note the changes. I am not a good nursemaid. 

I let them come and go without supervision. Before I know it

we are married and I have not told my parents. It’s ok, though,

because you are a beautiful groom. We got on the M headed back home

but someone had thrown themselves in front of it. Oh no was my spared thought,

switching platforms. When we crossed the bridge everyone threw

grains of rice over us. They stuck to my lashes. It wasn’t real until

you crossed over the water with me. Then I knew the contract was forever.

Lucky me, that you can’t let me go. I think tonight I will go for a five-mile run,

just to feel myself move.

Jerryan Nicole is a Brooklyn-based writer and art historian. She lives in a pre-war with books stacked on the floors and a ceiling that’s fallen through twice.