Katy Giebenhain: Falling Asleep in a 300-Year-Old Industrial Cottage in Derbyshire Surrounded by Star Wars Action Figures

Did you know a Storm Trooper Red Eye

has higher mechanical skills

than battle skills?


Did you know an Imperial Storm Trooper

has higher leadership skills

than intelligence?


Flanked by shelves of Jedi

a weekend houseguest

channels Joseph Campbell, says


out loud, in the snug dark

What about the Non-Hero’s journey?

Alongside the call to adventure

are the other calls.

And someone appears at the right time:

the enemy with a thousand faces

the mentor with a thousand faces

the waitress with a thousand faces.

The Hero doesn’t get

through anything alone.

All creators worth their salt know this.

Copyright 2021 Katy Giebenhain. First published in Glasgow Review of Books.

Katy Giebenhain currently lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Her collection of poems Sharps Cabaret (Mercer University Press, 2017) won the Adrienne Bond Poetry Award.