There is a company in New York City
that will rescue your couch
from the narrow hallway
between your old life and
a new one.
Poor old couch. Smushed against
the unwashed walls of a walkup
as you put your shoulder to hope
and push.
Optimism can’t always get you
around the corner.
Grit not only what shifts dreams
into action.
The company in New York City strips
furniture down to its core. Gone
the pretty covering, the fluffy filling,
the hidden hooks of memory and fear until
just the frame remains, as easy
to carry into an empty room or
a crowded one as
a vase before flowers.
Movement
Originally from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, Hilary King is a poet now living in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, TAB, Salamander, Belletrist, Fourth River, and other publications. Her book Stitched on Me was published by Riot in Your Throat Press in 2024. She loves hiking, travel, and ribbon.