Could Be
Rikki Santer
Light cuts through the window slats
like a julienned potato
and I realize I’m in the opening scene
of Click Bait for Dots Connecting
because it’s noon and my bed wants to know
if I’m getting up already
but it’s the skin of memory
when an overheated mind begins cantering
with the hem and haw of nearby yous
which ruptures the room
galloping a gajillion miles a minute.
Last night my cheek on my husband’s chest
his iambic melody thumping
with its new butterfly plug that fills
the small hole that might have been the gateway
for the stroke that caused us to pray for a deadline extension
and the phone call last week from a friend my age
in despair’s dark loop of dementia,
or downstairs my adult son’s inner child still angry, frayed, broken.
And I am lost in the corkscrew of cable news
with its frisson of a new administration’s dangerous batshit
and the genocide of many many many distant children.
So the vapor of this chockablock of putting two
and two and two together leaves me with what’s inescapable.
I am here. Right here.
In 2023, Rikki Santer was named Ohio Poet of the Year. Her forthcoming collection, Shepherd’s Hour, won the Paul Nemser Book Prize from Lily Poetry Review Books. Please contact her through her website, https://rikkisanter.com.
Table of Contents for Flaw and Favor