I am sorry about the meal. ⁹
Gone is gone; pretending
anything else is a waste of time.¹⁰

If I am wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no
difference.¹¹
If you’re lucky, there’s still some birthday cake left.¹²

I put my cheek to the ground
in order to blow softly on an ember.¹³
It felt like the world was rushing up to meet the sky. ¹⁴

Flames licked the edge of my desk.¹⁵
There is no you and me. ¹⁶
Are you sleeping here tonight or am I?¹⁷

What we are trying to do is replicate¹⁸
reality. Here you go, baby.¹⁹
Welcome home. ²⁰

Harvey’s books of original poetry include Modern Life and Sad Little Breathing Machine. She reads Thu 12 at A Public Space and Jun 18 at Poets House (mattheaharvey.com).

1 Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin (St. Martin’s Press, $24.95) 2 South Beach by Brian Antoni (Black Cat, $14) 3 Lovehampton by Sherri Rifkin (St. Martin’s Griffin, $13.95) 4 Odd Hours by Dean Koontz (Bantam Books, $27) 5 More than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss (Dutton, $24.95) 6 The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner (Dutton, $24.95) 7 The Beach House by Jane Green (Viking, $24.95) 8 Slumberland by Paul Beatty (Bloomsbury, $24.99) 9 Careless in Red by Elizabeth George (HarperCollins, $27.95) 10 The Likeness by Tana French (Viking, $24.95) 11 The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008 by Sean Wilentz (HarperCollins, $27.95) 12 Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s Press, $27.95) 13 The Other by David Guterson (Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95) 14 Personal Days by Ed Park (Random House, $13) 15 When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris (Little, Brown; $25.99) 16 Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot (William Morris, $22.95) 17 The Host by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown; $25.99) 18 Mexican High by Liza Monroy (Spiegel & Grau, $21.95) 19 Black Widow by Nikki Turner (One World Books, $14) 20 A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer (St. Martin’s Press, $27.95)