Alice Fulton

Alice Fulton was born in Troy, New York, on January 25, 1952, the daugher of a nurse and the proprietor of the Phoenix Hotel, and the youngest of three daughters. She had already begun writing poetry in high school, but

You Own It

by Alice Fulton (b. 1952)

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15

For your birthday, I’m learning to pop champagne corks

with a cossack sword when all you asked for was world peace.

I’m actioning the deliverables to wish you many happy returns

of the ecstasies that are imminent when all you requested

was a contentment so quiet it’s inaudible. Remember when

I gave you a robe of black silk that floats and does not rustle?

When all you desired was to turn from what was finished and hard

in the darkness. And when you said I gave you what I wanted

myself I gave you what I didn’t want: gift certificates to spas

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