Come with Me
to the bower and sit in the dark
green swing we can read each other’s
(not palms but) recipes bus time tables
repair manuals we can sing
about balaclavas and top hats
we can tell tall tales
once I found a mouse
living in my dresser the drawer was tricked out
like a flat there was a little bed there was
a book shelf and a 50s retro dinette
the mouse was reading the Wall Street Journal
mice are dirty capitalists like that
but I can see you don’t believe me
the mouse did not believe me either
when I asked it to move out
the sudden air stirs the leaves
you pump the swing begin whispering
about a bowl of stolen cherries and 46 dimes
JC Reilly is the author of the narrative poetry collection What Magick May Not Alter and the forthcoming chapbook Amo e Canto, which won the 2020 Sow’s Ear Poetry Prize. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in many journals, including Black Fox Literary Magazine, Hole in the Head Review, Antigonish Review, and PoetrySouth. Follow her @aishatonu.