Instead of a needle, a wooden wheel

certain in my cycle as a captain, a bachelor at sea

                   Instead of fawning over someone,

                        I’ve got a mouth full of yarn

              I weave rugs so I can sweep things under them

   buy sweatpants online                    delivered in a brown box

              I don’t play solitaire — too many ranks and numbers

         my favorite game was Old Maid, remembering

                all the pairs and getting them squared away

but that maid           I pitied and envied her, not having to deal

     with anyone — in her aloneness she was special, the last one left

   I quit Tinder to spend the night with Great Expectations

                   I was a spinster before it was hip — how I miss

            rotary phones, numbers coming back to where they started

                          my parents pray every day for me to get married

                    no pressure of course, just a positive spin

                          which runs in the family keeps things going

Diana Keren Lee has lived in Austin, New York, and Los Angeles. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Atlas Review, No Tokens, Painted Bride Quarterly, Prelude, and TINGE. She has received fellowships from New York University and The MacDowell Colony.