It’s Not Your Fault
Anne Graue
~for Kate Spade
I’m so sorry, Kate—
back in the 90s, I bought
one of your purses
hot from a vendor
on Broadway and 48th
who had merchandise
on a blanket
that he scooped
up quickly
after pocketing
my $25 for the blue
striped standing bag
with black leather
straps, a mini-bag inside
of the same stripe.
I’d never bought anything
on city streets before. I was green
and loved the bag for
the blue & black & white
lines on its horizon, you
and New York
on the nameplate
and I knew
I could never
afford it otherwise
and now I have it
in my closet, waiting
for me to carry
all of my things
inside it
to wherever
I might be going—
no place is
ever good
enough.
Anne Graue is the author of Full and Plum-Colored Velvet, (Woodley Press, 2020) and Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press, 2017) and has poetry in SWWIM Every Day, Verse Daily, Rivet Journal, EcoTheo Review, Flint Hills Review, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, and in print anthologies, including The Book of Donuts (Terrapin Books, 2017) and Coffee Poems (World Enough Writers, 2019). Her book reviews appear in FF2 Media, Adroit, Green Mountains Review, Glass Poetry Journal, and The Kenyon Review. She is a poetry editor for The Westchester Review.