My Sweet Ms Peve
 

You cann't imagine
It's the last word she will say
Lifting her head 
To notice someone is coming
Breaking the flat day
Of a face into curves
And switch on the light
Inside her eyes you see
The bottom of the ocean
She swims with strangely familiar
Half eaten fish heads
held up by boney fingers
It's ok I tell her
She nods and for a moment
Relief floods over her
The way water washes away the grime
And I laugh like a child
Bursting horrors like bubbles
She nods and says
Run along now
And I hear the iron clang shut
From behind
Next time we meet
She just nods and screams


Dorothy Epp   11/22/99