MATT PETRONZIO TO THE GROOM You would hear the wind even if it didn’t rustle the oak leaves or rattle the eardrums. You would hear her breath as if she still lay on the pillow next to you. You would fill your pockets with stale air and dead flowers and turn your blazer insideout. You would keep your windows dirty so you’d own art on sunny days. You would plant your fingers in the garden and wait for a green thumb to bloom. You would write grocery lists on old swatches of lace. You would sail the kitchen cabinet into the night and anchor the wood to the seafloor. You would drown with the diamond, not float with the ring.
Matt Petronzio is a poet living in New York City. He was the recipient of the 2011 Academy of American Poets Prize at Fordham University, where he is a creative writing student and an editor of multiple publications.