Susan Kelly-DeWitt: Maybe I Have No Ideas

Eating a turkey sub from the school cafeteria 
I suddenly think of the blonde woman
whose marriage is falling apart and the dark 
circles under her eyes, as if two moons
had lost their light there; I think of how
she so unevenly layered the pickles and tomato 
with the pink turkey flesh and the odd way
she has of wearing what she calls a "wife-beater" 
T-shirt, even in winter. Her fingers have left
their slender depression in the bun, so in
this tangential way we touch. And then
it strikes me that maybe I have no ideas at all
of my own, only other people's lives where 
they've left their imprint on my husk.

Copyright 2021 Susan Kelly-DeWitt

Susan Kelly-DeWitt’s books include Gravitational Tug (Main Street Rag, 2020).