Nicole Markert
I Am Not Haunted
by monsters, or a fear of the
dark, when I walk
down
worn blue
carpeted steps
into the depths
of my basement
I am haunted by your microphone
the fortune-taped monitor
Happier days are definitely ahead for you.
Struggle has ended.
Fluorescent lights flicker; dim
shadows crawl into gaping holes
in brittle pink flowered wallpaper.
I can hear you scream
from the dark:
Do you remember what you told me?
As we swung on that dinky
blue
and
yellow swing
set
back in Waretown, our bare feet in the mud
that were shaped like quad tracks
my eyes closed as I swung
higher
and
higher
into the sky, wind in my hair, rays of sunlight on my face
I heard your tiny voice at the age of seven say
open your fucking eyes
they snapped open
I said
what the hell did you just say
you said
you heard me. Open your fucking eyes.
dark, when I walk
down
worn blue
carpeted steps
into the depths
of my basement
I am haunted by your microphone
the fortune-taped monitor
Happier days are definitely ahead for you.
Struggle has ended.
Fluorescent lights flicker; dim
shadows crawl into gaping holes
in brittle pink flowered wallpaper.
I can hear you scream
from the dark:
Do you remember what you told me?
As we swung on that dinky
blue
and
yellow swing
set
back in Waretown, our bare feet in the mud
that were shaped like quad tracks
my eyes closed as I swung
higher
and
higher
into the sky, wind in my hair, rays of sunlight on my face
I heard your tiny voice at the age of seven say
open your fucking eyes
they snapped open
I said
what the hell did you just say
you said
you heard me. Open your fucking eyes.
Biography
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Nicole Markert (she/her/hers) is a bisexual poet who is a recipient of Eastern University's Thyra Ferre Bjorn Creative Writing Award. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Rust + Moth, Furrow, SWWIM Every Day, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry. She is currently a poetry reader for Split Lip Magazine and is pursuing an MFA in Poetry as well as an M.A in Publishing at Rosemont College. You can find more of her work at nicolemarkert.com and she tweets at @nicolemarkert.
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