Hated
She’d opted out of much,
been barred from more.
Some days she had scoffed at them,
not a reject but a recluse. A snob, almost.
More often a pariah
whether dodgeball
or chem lab
walking to or from
forcibly alone
as though around her hovered
a putrid cloudy atmosphere.
In quiet later years
her memories grew fluid,
rolling side to side
mixing and separating
been barred from more.
Some days she had scoffed at them,
not a reject but a recluse. A snob, almost.
More often a pariah
whether dodgeball
or chem lab
walking to or from
forcibly alone
as though around her hovered
a putrid cloudy atmosphere.
In quiet later years
her memories grew fluid,
rolling side to side
mixing and separating
Jessica L. Walsh is a poet and Associate Professor of English at Harper College in suburban Chicago. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in artisan: a journal of craft, The Listening Eye, Driftwood, the Furnace Review, Blood and Fire Review, Mobius, The New Press Literary Quarterly, Red River Review, Third Wednesday, Listening Review, and In Posse Review.
