Airtight

Emily Gordon

You can accept that the food is rotten

or you can reverse time and use Tupperware.

You don’t have to go to a party to get it,

the supermarket has Tupperware for sale,

stacked and nested inside an aisle,

whispering safety and hygiene and virtue.

You can make a train of containers

in your own space, where food prep

will be second nature to you. You too

will be vitamin-driven, storing nutrients

with wholesome precision and economy.

Don’t fear the refrigerator door,

don’t steel yourself for the shudder

of shame when you breathe in

the chilly tainted air. The mold

has not bloomed, the bell peppers

in undreamed-of numbers will present

themselves to your practiced hands.

The Tupperware cups the food like gloves.

It does what we are not able to do,

contain things neatly, hold, and seal.