Rennie Ament

An Alternative Suitor

I like to eat crackers with government
cheese, then talk about my favorite

genuflector and mower of lawns:
a khaki’d soul who goes down

to the basement where he comes down
with the whittling bug, carves circling

snakes, small birds into sassafras, sits
and transmutes into chair.  He says,

Wait for a sign if nothing feels fine.
Lord, heal his numb from the night arm.

Give him a merit badge for mundanity.
He’s solid, practically kudzu-choked:

I love him so much it’s an industry.

Rennie Ament studied poetry at Hunter College, where she has taught creative writing. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, Sixth Finch, Prelude, and elsewhere. She lives in Astoria, Queens and works at Poets House in Manhattan.