Observing the Doppler Effect of Life Passing 

He gives me a coy look of arousal from the wooden table
I had wanted to have a romantic weekend
I brought home from the consignment store a paper mâché man
He’s dressed in black and terribly sensitive
Your dad never should have sent you away like that, he tells me
I’m wishing for a crawfish boil for my birthday, he tells me
We’re seated stirring gin gimlets using the red straws
I used to drink from before I knew any better
I am the most advanced model on the market there is
My man says to a mirror above the storage credenza
He stamps his stump of a leg past my riding crop
I need to leave the house soon but not today
The weekend hasn’t even started yet
I grab his head to my chest and kiss it twice

Kami Enzie (he/him) is a D.C.-based writer and recent Iowa grad. Work appears in 128 LIT, Chicago Review, Common Place, EPOCH, New American Writing, Obsidian, Oversound, The Poetry Review, and elsewhere. His manuscript in-progress River of Love was named runner-up for CAAPP’s 2025 Book Prize and he was a 2025 finalist for PSA’s Chapbook Fellowship.