STALE by Olivia Mettler

My cat stops covering her shit 

at the same time

I stop brushing my teeth.

Synchronized self depreciation spreads along off-white baseboards.

Like my teeth,

off just a little,

a little too much to bear.

I only feel small with some of me showing,

like the world is a baby I play peekaboo against

in my spare time. I disappear

until there’s nothing left to lose.

Until the smell of shit fills my room.

Until this toothbrush hates me too.

Olivia Mettler is currently a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing with her focus being poetry. In her free time she watches lizards from her patio with her cat or is aimlessly wandering the nature preserves of South Florida.