It's Still Life

A Hermit Crab Poem: On the Back of a Receipt

1 bottle full-fat milk
(life is too short for skimming anything)

3 overripe avocados
(they bruise faster than first loves)

1 jar of honey
(thicker than apologies at 2 AM)

2 donuts
(the baker knows my name.
asks, “where’ve you been?”
I say, “somewhere warmer.”
he nods like a priest absolving an absentee.)

1 bouquet wilted cilantro
(I buy it anyway—
even though it tastes like bad soap and missed calls)

…phone number?
(scrawled in fading green ink, like it meant to leave first)

Total: £19.99 (contactless)

(smiling)
(click: green pen clicks sharp as a spell)

parsley
chives
basil
(lots of green things—
but not lettuce. never lettuce.)

birdbath ?

buy lettuce seeds (grudgingly)

Garden (aka Green Ink)
Parsley—
the kind that tangles in the rain,
like my hair,
like promises soaked through.

Chives—
sharp little flags waving over nowhere.

Fill the birdbath.
(The crow says I’m too quiet lately.)

Buy lettuce.
(Just in case the world needs another soft thing.)

I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Taking It Anymore

Ring the doctor’s office.
Put them on hold.
Let them float in f***ing limbo—
where prayer requests
and elevator music go to die.

Find the walnut under the sofa—
nuts, like a tiny shipwreck,
still trying to sail somewhere.

Don’t whisper in an empty house—
not like a rosary,
not like a password,
not like heaven,
who already hung up.

PAD (Poem-a-Day Challenge) Day 26 with Prompt: a Hermit Crab Poem*. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2025 All Mischief Reserved.

*A hermit crab poem is like a hermit crab essay, which is an essay that takes on the form of another type of literature. So a hermit crab poem might be a poem that looks like a to-do list, or a message on a postcard.