MONDAY: The Poet on Stage

BY JOHN GREY

Copyright is held by the author.

She read a poem
that made everyone in the audience
remember something they didn’t want to,
and, when they got home,
they couldn’t even sleep it out of their system,
as they just lay there
being fondled by hairy uncles
or harming themselves with a razor
or hating the mirror’s image,
and then, even when they finally dozed off,
they fell into a dream
where they were running,
someone was in pursuit,
and drawing nearer and nearer —
it was the poet coming up behind,
and they were sweating, aching,
tumbling forward, about to scream,
wanting nothing more to do with her.