Poem in Which I Privately Consider Polyamory Instead of Having a Conversation with You

Thirty-one & reconsidering everything

I know about love. I do not

have new ideas about love

but I have new feelings. 

I am not sure love needs to be

shuttled into a single bed

into a single person. I go

outside & pick some raspberries,

take them in, bounce them around

in a colander under the faucet.

I eat the biggest ones first,

which does not make the others any less

red or ripe, which is to say there is room, 

& this is a room with many doors,

my back always to one of them.

Lisa Summe is the author of Tell Me Twice (YesYes Books, 2027) and Say It Hurts (YesYes Books, 2021). She earned a BA and MA in literature at the University of Cincinnati, and an MFA in poetry from Virginia Tech. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bat City Review, Foglifter, Muzzle, Salamander, Salt Hill, Underblong, West Branch, and elsewhere. She is currently associate poetry editor for Brink. You can find her running, playing baseball, or eating vegan pastries in Pittsburgh, PA, and at lisasumme.com.