Gretel before the Oven

The messy kitchen had become a story
I told about failure, each spoon
relishing the tongue 
that licked the smooth mirror 
into emptiness, 
reflecting you
upside down. I could pretend 
to be good. Now that the gas burner no longer
hugs haloes of rings of rice? 
Without the crumbs,
the dish smeared with purple
blackberries and brie, the wet-
cut lemon, there’s no way 
back, the path empty all over 
again tonight. There is no 
past, nothing before now. 
The oven beeps. Let’s open the door. 

TYLER MILLS

Tyler Mills’s latest books are the memoir The Bomb Cloud (Unbound Edition Press, 2024) and the craft book Poetry Studio: Prompts for Poets (University of Akron Press, 2024). Awarded residencies and fellowships from Yaddo, Ragdale, and Bread Loaf, she teaches for Sarah Lawrence College’s Writing Institute and lives in Brooklyn, New York.