Carol Smith




From a cardboard box
marked Yard Sale Items,
a body spreads its cast-offs
for display on a gray metal 
folding table in the driveway.

A knee, a hip, some broken teeth.
One eye its partner learned to do without.
An ear too stubborn to be aided.
A mutinous hand that dropped a jar,
scattering dried herbs on a kitchen floor.

Age drives by for an early-morning preview,
stops at noon to offer a low-ball price,
circles back on trash day, before sunrise,
tosses everything with a crash
in the back of a black pickup.





Carol A. Smith resides in New Jersey, where she enjoys the beach and the proximity to city life in Philadelphia. When she’s not writing or teaching at Rowan University, she’s acting silly with her children and grandchildren. Carol’s poems have appeared in The Last Stanza, Rising Phoenix Review, Radical Teacher, Mobius, In Parentheses, and Sad Girl Diaries. Her work has also been featured by the Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County, PA, and Poets Against Racism & Hate USA.