Everything is Fine from A to Z by Michelle Matz

~ ONE ART
Everything is Fine from A to Z My neighbor told her 3 year old son that guns shoot flowers. When a kid at preschool told him planes drop bombs, she said bombs are filled with orchids and marigolds, periwinkle and hollyhock. He’s 16 now. At dinner, he says Biology was fine and English was also fine and meeting with his advisor about next year’s schedule was fine, too. Everything is fine from A to Z. The weight of her sadness at the dinner table is similar to the lead apron her dentist uses during x-rays to protect her internal organs. She often declines the x-ray, having some vague notion she's had too much radiation over the years. Once she even said, Just say no to radiation! pretending to hold up a sign as if she were at a protest, but the dental technician looked at her quizzically so she brought down her sign. She is tempted to tell her son to please eat the broccoli she spent time blanching, patting dry, tossing with olive oil, sprinkling with a pinch of sea salt and roasting at 425 for 18 minutes, but her life is reaching a breaking point, and if he tells her he doesn’t want any broccoli or the broccoli’s edges are too brown or he no longer likes broccoli, she is afraid she might push her chair back from the table and begin to gather the decaying flowers littered across the kitchen floor.

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Michelle Matz’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in numerous publications, including Mud Season Review, Atlanta Review, The Lascaux Review, Dodging the Rain, and Atticus Review. Her chapbook was a semifinalist in the Ledge Poetry Contest and was published in 2006. Her book, Acoustic Shadow, was recently published by Main Street Rag. 

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