Hold on

I always think of Pauline going
down the stairs I always hold
on thinking how going down
she must have tripped she
was always going fast after
all we called her the Flash
and when her husband
found her it didn’t matter
that he was an ER doc he
might as well have been a post-
doc in art history he might as
well have been a window
washer or mortician there
she was at the bottom
of the stairs with that busted
sack of onions sweet onions
she’d have sliced and cried
over and eaten raw with a little
salt and she’d have handed
you a slice like a sliver
of moon and if you
were in a dark
time she’d have
said hey friend hold
on

Andrea Cohen, Onions via nybooks

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Andrew Durbin on Isa Genzken, also in nybooks.