Kelle Groom

Spacesuit

for Juliette & Arthur

My spacesuit arrived from Toronto today
a border I’ve been eyeing on the map
Even uninhabited even see-through organza
the knees are flexed   soles of the feet shadow-
black bouncing without gravity
In the grocery near the seafood counter
my right eye has been twitching for days
a woman called me over her brows perfectly
drawn upside down half-moons and I
went toward her she was shorter than me
the size of my grandmother saying the arm
and hammer is on sale   two for one
She points to the left over there
Thank you
I say, thank you, and she nods having
given me something
and rolls her cart
into the produce section looking
as contained as anyone    I wonder
who is there for her is she driving
a car    it is like a secret she passed
to me a code I am going to need.

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Kelle Groom is the author of four poetry collections, Underwater City (University Press of Florida), Luckily, Five Kingdoms, and Spill (Anhinga Press); a memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl (Simon & Schuster), a Barnes & Noble Discover selection and New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice; and most recently, How to Live: A Memoir in Essays (Tupelo Press). An NEA Fellow, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow and winner of two Florida Book Awards in poetry, Groom’s work has previously appeared in The Shore, AGNI, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, The New Yorker, New York Times, Ploughshares and Poetry.