Poem Written While Listening to Brett Kavanaugh
Looking back, it felt brave
to have touched
any man, like beating
a train across the rails.
He told me I was off mine–
conjured the words
testimony, veracity and sides.
Rain and all the days made us
hostages. The animals boys
become. My blood
drying in the banks
of bent grass, their tips,
pins inside pores,
blades, a stray cat’s
mouth. The silent
rivers and ghosts—
disturbed fever sleep.
My dreams are green
branches for whipping,
an exorcism of cells.
–Terri Muuss