Ceasefire
The newscaster pauses as he realizes he’s just singsonged,
‘Talks ended with no truce in Belarus,’
and I see you leaning against a blue-domed church I know nothing about,
going over your notes.
You’ve been flinging yourself chest-first into stories
the concerned mothers of mutual friends say you have no business touching.
For years you have done this, trying to thump out of there what remains
of a woman we both love.
And this is something else I know nothing about.
Elizabeth O’Connell-Thompson’s work has been featured in RHINO, Icarus, and Banshee, among others. She runs the Wasted Pages: Rut Bust workshop for the Chicago Publishers Resources Center. EOTwrites.com
Also appearing in The Wax Paper is O'Connell's poem, The Farmer and the Fox.