Tuesday, March 11, 2014

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