Penny tries to hate her mother

after Stardew Valley’s lonely tutor NPC

and fails again in dimensions outgrowing
those of the can they live in. And so she turns
to the children she teaches, answers
her harvest of nightmares by fulfilling,
for them, all her prerequisites of self-love:

books as stand-ins for beer cans, words
as steadfast companions. A legible cursive
carefully wound as the plotlines she wishes
her life would adhere to, with cleanliness
of expression and intention. A reliable
narrator: unwavering voice of
moral authority, willing to scold but
always present to hold their hands
on the long, dark way home.