Rachel Harkai
Evening at the Atomic Inn
I’ll admit I’ve loved some things
deemed less than perfect.
On a patio, pinning flowers to a dress form
until my fingers, then hands, get blurry.
Nothing is indestructible.
Not the sky, not the parking lot
it bathes in weird, fluorescent green.
Not that I'm complaining, really.
I'm sure there are a number
of heavens.
We just happened on the one
with corn whisky and ice cream
sandwiches and Christmas lights.
Just when we thought it didn't get
much better—surprise, a tuba!
And someone made rocks
for us to hop across—
perfectly square rocks.
I'm having trouble
with end and beginning. See,
a contradiction is just two things
that don't live well together.
Every light here has a halo
that makes you different.
About Rachel Harkai
Rachel Harkai earned an MFA in Writing from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. A finalist for the 2019 National Poetry Series, she was runner-up in the 2016 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, was the recipient of a Kresge Artist Fellowship, and has received four Hopwood awards for both poetry and nonfiction. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, Salmagundi, Michigan Quarterly Review, DIAGRAM, Smartish Pace, Hotel Amerika, Portland Review, and elsewhere. Harkai currently serves as the Volunteer Coordinator for Room Project, a space for women and non-binary writers in Detroit. Find her on the web at www.rachelharkai.com.