Millicent in Algebra
 
A serrano migrated to the back of the fridge
behind the peanut butter and mayonnaise,
like that darksome girl in eighth grade
slouched behind Michael & Penn,
who in her manner of breathing low,
stricken from the textbook, as unlikely
as a crow congealed in aspic,
brooding and wry and none too delicate,
brought heat or a fear of heat
— mountainous heat to the boys
and their otherwise bland arousals
— their dull quadratic equations
solved and she stillburning still.

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Devon Brock is a short order cook, writer and urban expat living in the Dakotas with his wife and dog. His poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, La Piccioletta Barca, and Oracle Bone among others. He also maintains a poetry blog at www.sweetandbittergreens.com.

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