Contemporary poetry

During the informal Java House workshop this afternoon, it struck me that I read much too little of contemporary poetry.  So today I'm posting a piece by Hannah Gamble, who published her first book just last year.  Here are three more poems by her, including a companion poem to the one I'm posting.
______________________________________________

Leisure, Hannah, Does Not Agree with You

–After Catullus

By Hannah Gamble

Leisure, Hannah, does not agree with you.

Mouth stuffed with garlic cloves

testicular in shape and pungency, you asked yourself permission
for a chicken’s breast, a loaf of bread slicked with butter,

a cake with cherry glazes that would delight

any little girl with gaps in her teeth clapping “Cake!

Oh, cake! It is so worth a soiled dress!”

It’s as if, Hannah, leisure entered through your pores
and made you poor in spirit: “I have no work to push me,
I have no love to hold me, I have no hope to lift me. Only cleaning—”
which is not truly leisure, Hannah!
But you can fold these shirts like they do in the boutiques, sweetness.
Take a little pride in the smallish things—how shiny, your blue teakettle!
Tree branches slam against the windows, but your house
is a fortress; and you are too, Hannah.