Renee Emerson

Buying My Daughter's Second-Hand Violin

I was pretty sure he wouldn’t murder me
when I saw the New Testament 
and a coffee-table book of Dali
beside his Solo cup of soda and ice.
 
Quilts clipped to the windows
dimmed the light, and I shadowed 
the doorway, propped the glass 
with my foot, car keys in hand.
 
What did I expect from a guy
posting as Jeff G., selling this cheap?
 
Cigarette smoke wafted up 
from the unzipped case; he 
lifted up like a newborn 
the high-end Cremona,
from its nest of velvet green.
 
I have too many, he said,
and his hands grew steady.
Vivaldi sang from the strings,
over daytime TV and his wall
of parakeets in half-covered cages.
 
No, not for myself, I’m no artist,
I concede, then thanked him kindly. 

Renee Emerson is the author of the poetry collections Keeping Me Still (Winter Goose Publishing 2014), Threshing Floor (Jacar Press 2016), and Church Ladies (Fernwood Press 2023). She is also the author of the chapbook The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants (Belle Point Press), and the middle-grade novel Why Silas Miller Must Learn to Ride a Bike (Wintergoose Publishing 2022). She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children.