The Items in the Fridge

First Appeared in Apricity

Safeway roasted chicken ghoulishly dry so unappetizingly displayed 
untouched in its black plastic coffin with clear top, bagged salad never opened
withered apples Velveeta cheese a quart of skim some old fries off-brand ketchup
orange juice the cheap kind no pulp all purchased by the nurse’s aide after my
uncle died
my culinary artiste aunt rescued from cardiac arrest during 
the coming attractions at the movies, retrieved with only her long-term memory 
intact and now of course unable to produce those sleight-of-hand dishes 
she unveiled like magic, always ready in the freezer should company drop by 
cupboards stocked with Godiva chocolates perfect stone fruit melon artichokes 
exotics her bespoke clothes gone from her closets and her bathrooms empty 
of their thick plush matching towels by the time we visited, so we weren’t surprised 
when my aunt’s live-in caregiver stroked and died in the condo from a brain
bleed so stately paced that she dialed 911 for herself before she herself succumbed
and left my aunt alone   again

Laura Celise Lippman