“Wedding Rings and Sourdough”
do not go together, no.
We walk to the restaurant, then he slips his ring off to work with his hands—
mixing dampened flour he’ll later shape and leave to proof
and he can’t risk wearing it then either—it might come off
and bake into a boule, and some diner might choke
so he keeps it off in prep and off in service, too. My fingers notice
it doesn’t go back on when I take his hand on the late walk home—
soon it just lives on the nightstand, a reminder: absence in proximity
how we each begin rolling toward our edge—the bedding separates
and holds us, both: he tangled in the sheet with his toes out
and I, warm in the comforter.
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Divorced Business Partners: A Love Story by Emily Hyland is available via Howling Bird Press.
