Missed Connections
by Christina Kallery
“I look on here daily hoping someone noticed me enough to post an ad about it.”
–Anonymous in Trenton, Michigan
To the garbage man in the orange truck,
who chatted up a lady by the Hollywood Tan,
would you guess she’d love another chance
to watch you hoist those overflowing
cans?
And bashful guy from the drugstore line,
eyeing the pharmacist so cute it stirred in you
the first bright thrum of happiness in months.
How you waited to meet her gaze
as she counted your antidepressants,
pill by pill, into their amber jar.
And you, Billy the cable tech, with a gentle
side and cool blue eyes. You’d even fixed
that girl’s computer desk, which you didn’t
have to do.
O, single mom who bought a snake
at the Reptile Emporium. You so mesmerized
the assistant manager, the extra mice came free.
the assistant manager, the extra mice came free.
To Deb from the dollar store in Pontiac. Would it shock
someone among that throng who purchase sad-
eyed ceramic dogs to read that not a lone day fades
when you don’t dream his face?
O, 38-year-old male from Waterford who likened
your love to a dumpster on fire. The odds
of the one you crave discovering this
amount to nearly zero.
Yet even you are no less lucky than all
us dingbat romantics the world over.
Our hearts electric with longing to touch
the impossible, the way lightning rips
its jagged course across the sky.
About the Poet:
Christina’s poetry has appeared in The Collagist, Gargoyle, Failbetter, Rattle, and Mudlark,
among other publications. Several of her poems are currently online in audio format, including one that is part of a musical collaboration and appears in the March podcast for Golden Walkman Magazine. She’s served as submissions editor for
Absinthe: A Journal of World Literature in Translation, poetry editor for Failbetter
and have been nominated for a Pushcart prize. She was born in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, recently spent seven years in New York City, and currently resides in Detroit.
among other publications. Several of her poems are currently online in audio format, including one that is part of a musical collaboration and appears in the March podcast for Golden Walkman Magazine. She’s served as submissions editor for
Absinthe: A Journal of World Literature in Translation, poetry editor for Failbetter
and have been nominated for a Pushcart prize. She was born in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, recently spent seven years in New York City, and currently resides in Detroit.
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