Your Country Needs You


Maybe one time standing behind a podium


you heard voices and realized they were


what your own mouth just said and quickly


you grew accustomed to giving orders.


Or maybe standing there you said nothing


at all and the next thing you knew


some night shift nurse of the invisibly


wounded was monitoring your fitful dreams.


Like everyone, I’ll watch indefinitely

while
the meant-to-be lovers stay

a lip’s width apart
or a war zone, their shadows overlapping


like animals around a dried-up watering hole.


I keep expecting someone prettier when I look

in the mirror.See how we shatter then


reassemble as I turn away back into the day.

Lisa Olstein, 2014