Carrie Murphy

Receipts

I killed a stinkbug by drowning it

in lavender lotion from Anthropologie. All

around, the vintage suitcases I collected

during the dark times. Up with the crinoline

& the linen curtains that make us feel safe

with good taste. Sailor pants in the

drawer for a nautical Halloween costume.

Hair in braids. Girls putting bikini

pictures on the internet from their phones.

Girls speaking in videos about their

plastic drawers filled with shimmers for

the eyes. Those wavy lines televisions

never get anymore. My shorts are too

short but also not short enough,

not for this place, this night, this

crawling sense I wear with

claws. All these t-shirts of alma maters

& sodas with straws floating up

while I'm still blueing my way in,

& then out.

Carrie Murphy's first collection of poems, PRETTY TILT, was released by Keyhole Press in 2012. She received her BA from the University of Maryland and her MFA from New Mexico State University. Her chapbook, MEET THE LAVENDERS, appeared in 2011 from Birds of Lace. She works as a teacher and freelance writer, and is in the process of becoming certified as a birth doula.