Policy

The clerk’s hands were very clean

as he turned the vacuum over

under the humming light.

I stood there while he poked

at the clear plastic throat.

There was a knot of my own hair,

a grey, tangled bird’s nest

pressed against the seal,

and one dead ladybug

that had turned the color of a scab.

He didn't look at me

when he said it was used

beyond the terms.

I just wanted to tell him

it didn't work from the start.