"RESERVATION"
by Cheryl Snell

She enters the diner, a book
in her purse; sits down,
opens a menu. Tongues
on her sneakers
twist like the urge to flee.

She steals a glance at her wrist,
watch-face ticking in circles;
notices that the table has a head,
a chair with a back
and arms to rest her elbows on.

To knuckle her spine
against the chair’s ladder of slats
comforts her frame of reference.
Carnations nod in a vase.
She fingers the blown glass,
its slender neck, the wet crystal lip
and the room begins to hum.

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Cheryl Snell has work in current issues of Thunder Sandwich, Pebble Lake Review, Worm 33, Snakeskin and Rock Salt Plum. The author of two chapbooks of poetry, Flower Half Blown (Finishing Line Press, 2002) and Epithalamion(Little Poem Press, 2004),she has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

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PREVIOUS WORK

"REVISIONIST HISTORY" by Cheryl Snell

"VAPORWARE" by Cheryl Snell

ON HUNTER S. THOMPSON

"INFANTILE" by Robert Zbikowski

"CRÉMATOIRE" by Robert Zbikowski

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