Upscale Couch and Sandwich Co.

Other people’s couches are
rarely your taste and often
smell of the last time
their owners used garlic.

Commercial couches belong
to a million other people and
are no exception—wrinkled blue
slipcovers and stained gold
pillows on a dangerous
wax floor. Their cushions
funked with overcooked coffee
and burnt herb garlic bread.

On Saturday afternoons the
overdressed sandwich eaters stream
from nouveau neighborhoods,
past the blue garlic couches,
holding their trays and polite
children in front of them—pink mouths
drooping with nouveau food
and overpriced quiet—halfway
in, halfway out.

-M.