“Company Man” by Melissa Thorne
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Company Man” by Melissa Thorne.
Company Man
By Melissa Thorne
You love the smell of raindrops on hot pavement, insist
itโs different from petrichor, โone is of nature and the other
of man,โ you say, and if I borrow your mind, I can almost admire
the asphalt ribbons, zip of wheels, crush of sound and
grind of bodies here, but eventually, I chafe under the milquetoast moon,
resent those sallow marquee lights for dimming her face.
I watch your ties in our closet amass into a roiling snake ball,
squirm under the covers when their hisses caress the shell of my ear.
You slither into bed past midnight, and I try to whisper โcompany manโ
like the endearment it once was, it comes out like horked phlegm,
with it, a blessed lalochezia that slides against my tongue, frees me.
I end things with words youโll comprehend like synergy, actionable,
leverage and circle back, yet you still donโt understand why I left
to rest in a lonesome bed, beneath sable sky with quadruple the stars,
and a cantaloupe moon hung large above the tree line. Where a chorus
of spring peepers lulls me to sleep, singing words you never learned,
never paid mind to, because it is an exchange freely given, not earned,
and the trill of the red-winged blackbird never asks for anything in return.
Copyright ยฉ Melissa Thorne
Forthcoming in Augury (Big Pond Rumours Press, 2026).
Melissa Thorne (she/her) lives on the traditional and treaty territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations (Cobourg, ON), with her husband, two sons, and Irish Wolfhound, Walter. She reluctantly serves as Walter’s social media manager after he inadvertently went viral on Instagram. Her poetry is published/ forthcoming in various places such as ROOM Magazine, Pinhole Poetry, WEI Magazine, and Eavesdrop Magazine. Find her on Instagram @melissa_thorne_poetry.
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