This Weekend's Featured Poetry

TWISTED SISTERS

By Susan Evans

There is no use barring the windows and doors 

and staying up all night with a shot gun 

across my lap to keep out 

the veiled, long-faced, Blue Miseries -- 

sobbing into tear-stained hankies and carrying doomsday calendars,

or the squat, white-gloved Small Petties, squinting through 

magnifying glasses and gripping score cards and tweezers; 

or even the ragged, hand-wringing, Desperate Needies, clutching 

donation requests and begging bowls;

and ditto the quill-coated, helmeted, Battle-Ax Harpies, 

snarling over bitter chocolate and dill spears;

and utterly impossible to stop the wide-bottomed Death Worriers 

clad in hoodies and compression socks, biting fingernails 

and rolling beads over their palms.

My house stands riddled with holes 

and the unwelcome seep inward with relish,

waving mockingly,

letting me know what a fool I am to allow entrance.

I rise reluctantly from a sleepless night 

with my chain of heavy keys

and unlock doors, surrendering to all the miscreant

sisters, agitators, complainers, and droopy drawers.

I feed them occasionally, strewing crumbs of regret,

express slight sympathy, pat their knees 

murmuring, “There, there;”

and try civilizing and integrating them into polite society,

letting them stay -- too long -- dining on my better nature

Finally, patience wears thin and drama exhausts, so I 

glance at my wrist, look pointedly at the door, 

and say, “My. Look at the time! Off you go!”

They sigh. I avert my eyes. 

They pack up their dribbles of things, 

take some of my baggage,

and wistfully scuttle out, looking back longingly 

even as I slam the door in their smudgy, baneful, graceless faces. 

Eyeing the mess they’ve made,

I vacuum

ABOUT THE POEM: "I believe the stress is palpable these days, and it is difficult to even sleep at night. My poem addresses my own insomnia and how I cope (eventually)."

ABOUT SUSAN: Susan lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and enjoys writing poetry, memoir, and creative nonfiction. Humor seems to help her make the world a little less scary, so she writes that, too.