The Laura Challenge
A friend challenges me to write
a poem about Laura. Eeew, I say,
it would be icky. She pushes me
further. Think about the box
she lives in, things she can’t say,
judgments that surround her, making her
dance when she just wants to fall
asleep. I set my poem in a café.
Laura has snuck away and we order
New York cheesecake. She savors
two pieces. I ask about her family.
She says she’d rather talk about
a book. What have I read?
I tell her about the new Edwin
Arlington Robinson bio. Her eyes
widen. She must have it. She claims
I don’t realize how lonely that big
house gets. Her sad face,
I can barely make eye contact, study
my napkin. We say goodbye. Before
I go to pick Stan up at the depot,
I see her get whisked into a limo—
she looks tiny as she disappears.
Kenneth Pobo’s work appears in magazines such as Southern Indiana
Review, Nimrod, forpoetry.com, three candles, Colorado Quarterly and
elsewhere. His radio show, “Obscure Oldies” can be heard at
WDNR.com (broadcasting from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania) on
Saturdays from 6pm-8pm Eastern Time. WordTech Press is bringing out a new book
of his poems called Glass Garden in 2008.