AFFECTS

Give me the toy treasure chest
of your baby teeth, kept because

you were loved, after all. I want it,
want it bad. Not much else

I can ask for. Only truth,
which is bound to be a bitter

harvest I’ll regret.
Mark my words, you said,

so I waited to be proven wrong.
I wanted someone braver.

I’ve been wearing my very best dress.

Katherine Fallon received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Meridian, Passages North, Permafrost, Colorado Review, and Foundry, among others. Her chapbook, The Toothmakers' Daughters, is available through Finishing Line Press. She teaches in the Department of Writing & Linguistics at Georgia Southern University, and shares domestic square footage with two cats and her favorite human, who helps her zip her dresses. She and her favorite bread recipe can be found at katherinefallon.com, and she is reachable on Instagram @ghostelephants.