If I’m watching the Comeback Kid
eyebrows knitted like cable stitches,
if I’m looking at the Chicago skyline
with my lips pressed tighter than
bumper-to-bumper on the inbound Kennedy
I don’t want you to worry:

I’m not getting homesick, or nostalgic,
or achey for these places I used to haunt
like a lost jelly sandal at 5 South Allison Lane:
suburban sinkhole for my former heart

I’m watching the Comeback Kid
because I’m running my thumb
over my tattoos instead of the remote
the lines their own warped reminder:
how long it’s been living in the funeral blues,
while listening to people from Chicago
sing the blues— and tell me how much
this lakeside sinkhole made us leave a little
waterlogged.

Mackenzie is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles who currently writes for podcasting and television. Her poetry chapbooks are forthcoming with Variant Lit and Kelsay Books this fall.