I smell butter burning the marriage—
Your husband thuds like a dentist
Dislodges a tooth that you never needed.
None of the neighbours know your name
You’re a corpse stumbling to the stove.
Splattered oil glistens like candlelight,
Gadgets gleam grease in the kitchen.
Your fridge, a gem, flashes joy—
The microwave, a jewel, beams bliss.
Odours of oil fly over the fence to nudge me.
The van outdoors and washing machine within
Shine sharper than your weave from Vietnam.
The scent of battery sparks bonfires—
I sniff my own suffering across the street,
Your soul splatters love’s salad.
Anna Zgambo
Anna Zgambo is pursuing a PhD in literature at the University of Zambia with a focus on lyric poetry. Her most recent poems appear or are forthcoming in Ubwali Literary Magazine, JAY Lit, Akpata Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly, ObindoMagazine, The Weganda Review, Midway Journal, and elsewhere. She is a Mawazo PhD Fellow, an Idembeka Creative Writing Fellow, and a reader at CRAFT Literary.
