“Coffers,” by Nicole Chvatal (Poetry ’19)

Nicole Chvatal, a 2019 poetry alum, was recently featured by SWWIM. Read an excerpt of Chvatal’s poem “Coffers” below:

Coffers

My boss is a real estate attorney,
the director of a retirement home
and also runs a side hustle
in which he bids on the belongings
of the homes of those
who are about to move on,
or move in with their kids or down
South or wherever. Treasures no longer
important enough to fit. In Maine
survival often depends on these types
of secondary jobs: Snow ploughing to push
a little more cash into the coffers, clamming
licenses to dig out a bushel
of Casco Bay littlenecks in the summer.

Read the rest of this poem here: https://www.swwim.org/blog/2021/8/4/coffers?rq=chvatal