Today's poem is by Kathryn Smith

A Collective of Susans
       

One Susan pulls the stones from my pockets and skips them across the river.

Another Susan clicks off the oven.

When Susan says, "Don't die," I want to live forever.

When Susan says, "When you die, I'll bury you in straw, pushing it softly against you with my snout," I want to die sooner, but only if I can be alive to feel it.

Susan says, "I can't have a feeling without becoming an animal."

"Of course not; we're all animals," Susan replies.

Lately I've been both less animal and more, and I'm here to tell you that overthinking is overrated. I've been so full of love I might burst like a beached whale in the sun.

It's like Susan's death fantasy: the department meeting where she calmly announces, "I'm dying."

How sad everyone will be. They will miss us all.

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Copyright © 2023 Kathryn Smith All rights reserved
from Copper Nickel
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission