Aleks Zywicki

stickerbook

in the stickerbook

made to look like a house

where the stickers are all

the things that go in a house

there are grayed-out spaces

my daughter calls shadows

in the shape & in the places

where the stickers are to go

there is a grayed-out shape

of a teapot on the stove

that is not grayed-out &

the grayed-out shape of a woman

sitting across a table that is not

grayed-out from an old man

who is not grayed-out

& not drinking tea either

because she is not there

to make it for him to fill

the kettle shadow space

on the stove or she is

making it but not for him

in the grayed-out house

of shadows in the shapes of all

the things that go in a house

Aleks Zywicki is a teacher of English and creative writing at The Hudson School, in Hoboken NJ. He received an MFA from the New School, where he studied poetry. His work appears (or is forthcoming) in: Plume, Gulf Coast, Landlocked, Right Hand Pointing, The Inquisitive Eater, and Armchair Shotgun. His chapbook was selected as a finalist in the 2024 Two Sylvias Chapbook Contest. He received a poetry fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing. He lives in Montclair with his family.