Michael Teig

AT THIS POINT MY CONFUSION

is an infomercial.
At the shop, it closes up many nights

like my parents had,
and turns back towards the unlit aisles

the way a person might turn to a choir and shrug.
A troubling choir.

Someone is asking if I’m ready,
and I’m on the couch folding these tiny pants.

I’m like a mule on a gondola, I say to my wife,
taking off a shoe with a lot of help. 

Like an aristocrat on a riding mower, she says,
removing a sock.

A squirrel on an escalator, I nod, offering limited resistance.
My wife is sympathetic, smart, and beautiful.

You’ve come a long way, she says,
surely thinking of someone else.

MICHAEL TEIG is the author of There’s a Box in the Garage You Can Beat with a Stick (BOA). His first book, Big Back Yard, was the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize.