Out of Office Reply

I am away from the office and I do not know

when I will return. I am suffering from a motion sickness

caused by the turning of the earth. My usual

responsibilities have been delegated to the moths

that pupate in your old sweaters. I cannot respond

to your message at this time; I was kept up all night

by a sparrow crying for morning, but as it turned out

the sparrow was me. I haven’t done the laundry

and there’s nothing left to clothe myself but metaphors.

You have reached the voicemail of a supposed person.

I have stepped away from my desk to assemble my evidence:

credit score, dress size, word on which I lost each spelling bee.

If you need assistance in my absence, please press

your finger to a hot pan to see if you get burned. And then

maybe check again just to be sure. The last time I tried

to convince anyone of anything, the network went down and all

the computers froze and we had nothing to do but stare at our hands

for hours. Strange things, hands, with all they are capable of

and all they refuse to refuse.

Amanda Hope lives in eastern Massachusetts with her partner and cats. A graduate of Colgate University and Simmons College, she works as a librarian. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Gasher Journal, Salamander, The Lily Poetry Review, and more. Her chapbook, The Museum of Resentments, was published by Paper Nautilus in 2020. You can find out more at her website, http://www.amandahope.net.