The Best of Both Worlds Isn’t the Best of Anything

I grew my mind
with the work
ethic of a weed—
eating baked beans
and canned asparagus.
Learned to fix
my mind’s thick
accent, fit in
with a clique,
snap and screwtop, spill-proof
and shatter-free.
I rolled with the kind
of knack it took
to pull up
a decorative bootstrap
with a borrowed degree,
bold as an albino
deer in the open,
ears alert
to the drawn bow.

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Amy Thatcher is a native of Philadelphia, where she works as a public librarian. Her poems have been published in Guesthouse, Bear Review, Rhino, SWWIM, Rust + Moth, Iron Horse Literary Review, Crab Creek Review, Palette Poetry, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Shore, and Anti-Heroin Chic. Her work has been nominated for Best New Poets 2024 and is forthcoming in The Journal and Denver Quarterly.