Maintenance Fees

The bill says forty dollars for the box

but the grout says something else entirely.

I’m standing in the steam at midnight

watching the Auburn swirl into the drain

like a rusted secret I couldn't keep.

My scalp is still humming from the lye

and the chemical bite of being pretty.

There’s a purple-brown ring on the tile,

a permanent stain for a temporary fix,

sinking into the stone before I can scrub it.