Wedding Ceremonies In The Age Of UHaul Storage

Andrew Campana's interaction with Patricia Lockwood's excellent collection, Motherland, Fatherland, Homelandsexuals.

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Patricia Lockwood Interaction
Andrew Campana

“He marries her mites and the wires in her wings,
he marries her yellow glass eyes and black centers,
he marries her near-total head turn, he marries
        the curve of each of her claws, he marries
the information plaque, he marries the extinction
        of this kind of owl…”
                                                —from “He Marries the Stuffed-Owl Exhibit at the Indiana Welcome Center,”
                                                    by Patricia Lockwood


I married the three jars of sauerkraut in the closet,
I married the bacteria fermenting them,
I married their lids rusting shut, I married
                   the CO2 straining against metal, I married
the vacuum-packed lentils, I married the Amazon
                       box they came in, I married the apartment
wall torn down to join two hollows together
         and the rubber flooring tensile across the gap
                                                      membraned
under chairs and table, I married the exhaust fan
            veiled so night can’t crawl in, I married
its silence, I married the paper doors stuck still,
I married their unpageness, I married the straw
                             matting and the fear of it moulding, I married
their grass scent in damp air, I married their ribs
and grooves and the mites that don’t live in them,
the felt cookie cat pin, the Totoro puzzle put back
in the box, the fitted sheet, the lack of need for a
fitted sheet, the tremors, the it’s okay, the flashlight
by the balcony, the sink catcher and what’s been
caught in it, the key to the Massachusetts storage locker,
I married the storage locker, I married the boxes, I married the violin
pausing on top of them