Regardless of craftsmanship, the chair
longs for weight to heft – scrape
of legs across a dining room floor, warm
glow of a late-night reading lamp;
it cannot stand behind stanchions,
velvet-roped from utility.
Scrutiny misses the point –
dissection doesn’t let us inside
our beloved. Art objects to sterile air –
the woodworker imagined your brother
jumping onto that kitchen chair

to soliloquize, just as the weaver intended
you to keep the wine-stained shirt,
even after his performance upended
your cup – whether hemmed in gold
or plain, it finds haven
stuffed in the back of your closet.
And the cup! – the wineglass –
behind glass, the fluted decanter thirsts
for more than a well-placed
spotlight; it longs for wine,
even bagged – even Boone’s Farm
would fill it with purpose it longs to spill.

A jade comb on its pedestal aches
for a knotted tangle of hair, wants
to know how far it can pull
before the world pushes back,
delicately in hand. Its teeth come alive
in cascades of auburn hair – when we say,
life imitates art, what do we mean
to strip away — to prove real?
The filigreed compact mirror beside it
reflects no empty gaze – points only
to the ceiling, cold steel rafters.

There is the argument of restoration –
of museum-as-laboratory; the myth
of liberating the past in the minds
of patrons present. Instead,
ask the exhibits – see how they admire
us on our side of the glass — 

Nathan McDowell and Neal Allen Shipley met over ten years ago as baby poets in college where they both held various board positions on the campus literary magazine, and also attended the weekly writing club. They developed a friendship over a mutual love of late night cigarettes and poetry. They have always shared a close editorial bond, always reading and critiquing each others' work, which grew into an experiment - co-writing poems and blurring the lines of "who" the poem belongs to, and sharing authorship equally. Nathan is a first-gen American poet and Two Dollar Radio HQ alum living in Columbus, OH. His work can be found in Bicoastal Review and Nude Bruce Review. Neal is a poet living in Colorado with a modest collection of pets and an unhinged collection of plants. His work can be found in South Broadway, Tension Literary, and Viridine Literary, among others. You can find him on Instagram @nealio9. Nathan and Neal's joint work can be found in Spark to Flame.