WD-40 gets the job done, my father states over voicemail 

by Liam Strong

penetrant of likely un
-hinging. 
a door squeaks
has nothing wrong with
it he says
un
-like broken which is
a form of dis
-placement or what organic
chemists call open
-chain compounds
obligatory metaphors of free
-dom as key pad
-lock weak cuffs some
-thing sounds like
a rat but
it’s less cold in the
kitchen when i blame
the rust of every
opening
moisture from a late
winter
just takes half
a dozen closes or
opens
can’t remember
to limber to get used
to it
the ghosts that
haunt my iron
who can’t be dispelled
with vinegar
says just a tap of
oil will do
says that it’ll
swing wide like new
the act of creating an
exit
which i wanted to
ask what he meant
because it sounds like
there’s nothing here

Liam Strong (they/them) is a queer neurodivergent cottagecore straight edge punk writer who has earned their BA in writing from University of Wisconsin-Superior. They are the author of the chapbook everyone’s left the hometown show (Bottlecap Press, 2023). You can find their poetry and essays in Impossible Archetype and Emerald City, among several others. They are most likely gardening and listening to Bitter Truth somewhere in Northern Michigan.