scene five from a marriage:
a broken spring equals a broken toaster
but not just any toaster
my bake-everything toaster
my savior to a shitty oven
my air fryer
my baker of brownies and pies 
my upper-class kitchen in my middle-class house

i asked if he *thought* 
it could be opened up and fixed
and before i’d moved the laundry
from the washer to the dryer,
he had the drill out.

you’ll never find this
i want to tell the world
my daughters 
my soul at age nineteen when he walked
so uncertainly 
into Pete’s Kitchen 

but i did.
i found the man who’d drill a toaster
on a hellish Thursday 
a Thursday dripping with tears and self-doubt

just another scene
from a marriage that works.