Lease Breaking
By Krystal Languell


I got that deposit back after I filled
the holes you put in the walls. No
locks on the basement windows,
no lights beyond the kitchen. Swept the
dead cicadas off the porch for our party
so no one had to drag their red eyes
across the carpet. There must be bird
people like cat and dog people. The next
street over, neighbors tire of hearing how
tweet tweet carries. You still set traps
for me. Otherwise, why would there be
birds and cages both? You saw a deer
run through the yard and we kept
the sledgehammer by the back door, the
mud room. You can’t catch a mouse that
way, but you could scare a bird back
into its cage, you could hold that hammer
under its beak and make it say please.

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