To Joel, the character in the underrated 2009 movie, Extract, played by the inimitable Jason Bateman

When she cinches the drawstring
of her sweatpants to say
there’s no sex in this house tonight
paying you no mind
but to distress you

To that concerned and affable
face of yours I say
baby, if I was your wife
my legs would open
like a refrigerator door missing
its gasket, hunger ever aglow.

Holly Pelesky (she/her) is a lover of spreadsheets, giant sandwiches, and handwritten letters. Her essays have appeared in The Nasiona and Jellyfish Review among other places. Her poems are bound in Quiver: A Sexploration. She holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska. She cobbles together gigs to pay off loans and eke by, refusing to give up this writing life. She lives in Omaha with her two son