Poetry by Sarah Sarai

      Stephen A. Wolfe CC




From an Apartment of the Interior

She had a nervous breakdown.
Told no one. 

No “Walk me over to Bellevue,
              would you?”

These lines are a public service announcement.
A Pronouncement.

Feel the fuzz?
              You might be on the fritz and

you are not the only one.
Which you knew and now you know again.

She did not tell anyone 
when she fell in love, either.

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The Land of Life

So even though
the mother didn’t
win one over 
the father and a lot 
of her life was 
an ache it was also
a muscle used for
all the daughters 
and what scares 
most is her not 
knowing in the adoptive 
land of death (where
moms, for instance,
brag on their kids,
like, incessantly),
she triumphed in
the old land of life
(where a safe meal
beats-out snotty  
perfect children 
other moms raised
over inadequately 
celebrated years).

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Sarah Sarai's books and chapbooks include Bright-Eyed (Poets Wear Prada/2024); That Strapless Bra in Heaven (Kelsey Books/2019); Geographies of Soul and Taffeta (Indolent Books/2016); The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX[books]/2009); Emily Dickinson's Coconut Face (Dusie Kolletiv/2009); and others. She lives in New York City.
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