JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

The house was full of creaks

 

Eyes peeped at her through knots in wood

and even when she tiptoed quietly as she could

her back close to the wall

 

Amanda felt that she was being observed

she noticed bars embedded in the ceiling

and tried to hide the things she felt inside

 

Almost as if she was a specimen laid out on a slide

then suddenly she understood, floated through the wood

to where, looking down, she turned the beveled knobs

 

From left to right until the body she had left

came into view and all at once she knew (almost, perhaps)

that this whole scene was just a temporary illusion

 

The source of her confusion was only some bad dream

Or something indigestible she’d eaten the night before

as lying spread out on the floor, the ceiling opened wide

 

She saw the tweezers, smelt the pungent

coating of formaldehyde