Office hours
Let’s think
of age as time available.
My availability is between
19[redacted] – 20[redacted].
The hunk totals the count
-down to my lifetime
best bench press to come.
I underestimate my size
in some bulked months,
new clothes, no hat,
some skort. Parent Time
kept its beard
tweezed to present
the numbers on the face
easy to read. Meet me
by the oily hour.
Vanessa Couto Johnson (she/they) is the author of the full-length poetry books pH of Au (Parlor Press, Free Verse Editions Series 2022) and Pungent dins concentric (Tolsun Books, 2018), as well as three poetry chapbooks. Most recently, VCJ's poems have appeared in The Shore, The Broken City, Rough Cut, and Landfill, among others.