Poetry Cave – A Very Smart Man I Knew

poetry a very smart man i knew

 

Read ‘A Very Smart Man I knew’ by Holly Day

TW: sexual assault

 

he was one of my mother’s friends, fluent

in the language of the stars, the sounds

of the cosmos, the workings of the universe

in even the smallest drop of blood. I was

just old enough to know it was all bullshit

not smart enough to walk away.

what I did know was how to be quiet

even under such gravity, against the collision

of uneven magnetic fields, dead stars exploding.

receding flames–I held my breath against

the unfamiliar friction, the staccato of engine burn

he clutched at my breasts afterward as though

he was afraid he would fall.

One afternoon of lightning and then

there were no more impromptu visits

no more lectures on possible sources

of celestial radio signals, the conversations of plants

books I should read. He would not look me in the eye

when I visited him at the library.

I might as well have been invisible

I didn’t matter at all.


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