The Notification
An hour late for the show
After dealing with customer service
He took too many gummies
We laugh
I have a notification from Julia
Julia
The last woman I caught my ex with
I don’t know her
Beyoncé is inside performing Formation
The text says Julia is pregnant
My kids will have a little brother
My ex won’t acknowledge the pregnancy
Beyoncé waits
“I’m so sorry,” I say
“I promise I’ll respond to this once I can digest it”
I enter the stadium
Surrounded by cowboy hats and denim
I can hear the end
Of my favorite song
*
The Bracelet
For cheating on me the first time
Tom gave me a Gucci belt bag
Because he requires some hand-holding
I sent him a link
When I caught him getting someone else
An abortion
On my birthday
I sent no link
And instead moved myself and the children to another county
A few weeks later
He sent an edible arrangement
(Weird because I don’t even like chocolate strawberries)
And then took me to dinner
And gave me a Tiffany T wire bracelet
Perfectly symbolic of his promises to me
It broke
And then broke a second time
After having been fixed
At our court-ordered
Supervised visitation
Brandie pushed the baby stroller to me
Dangling from her wrist, I could see
A Tiffany T wire bracelet
I was about to warn her that it would likely break
But I stopped myself
She doesn’t need to know
I have the same one
*
Jessica Bosworth is a poet and visual artist whose work explores relationships, motherhood, contemporary life, and absurdities hidden in ordinary experiences. She lives in Pennsylvania and is working on her first poetry collection, Lenox Coffee.
