The Auction
The house is not a home.
It takes takes takes.
It shakes the presumptuous hag stuck there
glued in place by poor decisions.
Strangles with antique trunks of keepsakes
she can’t keep for her sake,
the unused KitchenAid,
and the damn forsythia shrubs
that spitefully grow grow grow
when she needs this to stop.
The smiling dead framed on the walls
stare while she charges the trimmer.
They alone can see she’s too stoned to do it.
Moving out brings unclaimed heirlooms and ptsd.
Tripping past unshredded tax returns, warranties
to find Grandma’s unmatched Wedgewood.
To-do lists like little suicide notes.
Leaving demands
coughing out dust from a butter churn waiting for auction.
Tasting upholstery shampoo from the dining room chairs
that will sell for pennies.
It weathers her lungs.
The air has the poison of the family’s past.
She breathes down into her belly
to pack what tiny bits of life she can carry out,
to discard ghosts
the fantasy of an unencumbered self,
a new way to quiver.
I Subscribe to a Newsletter About Chronic Wasting Disease
and I don’t know why.
I recall the herd of elk
that wandered near Banff.
Three or four families together
slow purpose, watchful
side-eye to gormless tourists
who aim phones at wapiti targets.
The rangers arrive in pairs first
warn the crowd that filters
from the sulphur museum
where glory-day photos of bathers
hung in a hall cave of stench.
How did the rangers know?
Maybe the elk
texted their intention
or they trot this way often
to gawk at weird, unusual humans
like we flip through Vogue,
or people watch at the mall.
Maybe they demonstrate majesty
for lesser creatures
because I saw kings and queens
family
community
lives with purpose
on an ancient alpine trail
and I was jealous,
so jealous.
Virginia Doré
Virginia Doré lives on the traditional, unceded, and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg peoples in Ontario, Canada. Her first chapbook, An Adult Child’s Garden of Toads, was shortlisted by Waxing & Waning for the 2026 Apogee award. Her poetry has appeared in Arkana, Hare Paw’s Literary Journal and RoughDiamond’s anthology, Reflections of the Mind: Mental Health Poetry. When she is not writing poetry, she argues with herself and enjoys walks with her dogs.
