Come as your inner child
I’d added, an afterthought
to the party’s invitation

but when the one
we might have said was steel
girders and the glare
of light on glass

came not as a howling
wolf pup, one-eyed
pirate, ninja thief

but golden-wigged,
a smiling, blue-eyed girl

we searched, uneasy,
for our misplaced faces,

embarrassed
by these store-bought
plastic masks.

Ann Minot

 

Ann Minot holds an MFA from Goddard College and has had work published in New Letters, Tupelo Quarterly, Zone 3, Dunes Review, and Kettle Blue Review, among other print and online publications.

© 2021