Special Feature, Me Too SeriesrbdJune 13, 2018Leah Mueller, poetry, special feature, me too

Leah Mueller: Don't Get Too Comfortable

Special Feature, Me Too SeriesrbdJune 13, 2018Leah Mueller, poetry, special feature, me too

VIPER

Repressed wrath is worse

than the kind that shows

teeth. It hides

under cartilage, conceals

sharpness behind gums. Suddenly,

the swollen jaws open. You might

be sitting quietly in traffic,

eating ordinary food, staring

at nothing. Wrath doesn't care,

as long as you're distracted.

Sneak assault thrusts hard

into your connective tissue,

ejaculates within your bones:

you are no longer connected

to anything, only floating in

pain with no foundation.

Wrath an Old Testament god,

not caring who it flattens.

Everything an obstacle, and you

didn't move fast enough.

Somebody else's divorce.

Bankruptcy or a bad heart valve.

Shame and hatred compressed

into random bullets. One of them

happened to hit you in the head.

Don't cry: misfortune

happens to everyone. Stay

quiet, position yourself

differently next time. Check

the exits before the movie begins.

Enjoy the show, but

don't get too comfortable.

Leah Mueller is an indie writer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of two chapbooks, “Queen of Dorksville” (Crisis Chronicles Press) and “Political Apnea” (Locofo Chaps) and three books, “Allergic to Everything”, (Writing Knights Press) “Beach Dweller Manifesto” (Writing Knights) and “The Underside of the Snake” (Red Ferret Press). Her work appears in Blunderbuss, Summerset Review, Outlook Springs, Crack the Spine, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.

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