BIRTHDAY PRESENT

By Julie E. Bloemeke

At 45, I should have known better.
He talks excitedly to me on the phone,

unwraps the gift I left, house gleaming
with the clean we executed together:

how we evacuated spiders, dust,
the ephemera he kept in boxes

I encouraged him to let go. And the way
he promised, once again, it was ever

and only me, us kissing raw at the airport.
And the girl, younger than his college-aged

daughter, who he told to be silent,
isn’t. He claims she’s the TV. But

I heard her call out Mrs. Everyone
knows the ending before I do:

she looks to him, poised to lick,
traces her finger around the edge

of the frosting. She’s convinced
he’s talking to his mother, puts

that sweet, celebratory finger
in her mouth, and smiles.

JULIE E. BLOEMEKE (she/her) is the author of Slide to Unlock (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) and co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023). A two-time recipient of Books All Georgians Should Read, she is also a 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Finalist. Winner of the 2022 Third Coast Poetry Prize, her poems have been featured on NPR, The Slowdown, and Verse Daily, and her work has appeared in Writer's Chronicle, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Cortland Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. A contract-based writer, editor, teacher, and creative consultant, she can be found online at www.jebloemeke.com.