Matthew Gilbert
Lucid
I find you again under my bed,
my reflection nestled
with armless dolls and silverfish
crawling over the uneven floorboards.
Draped in a stained bedsheet
you whisper, What’s your favorite color?
Using our father’s mirror
you thought your face was grainy,
complexion crumbling, raised
on a diet of dust—Shh,
I hear his static. Sorry, you say,
bobby pins were in my mouth. Then,
What’s your favorite color?
I’m awake but can’t move.
Dad rolls marbles across the floor
to show he knows our hiding spot.
If this was a dream, you say, light
leaking down your face, it would
have a classic interpretation. The light
brightens. Tell me,
you slur, face flooding, what is it?
But white
is not a color, white is its absence,
and his nose is so full of blood.
I find you again under my bed,
my reflection nestled
with armless dolls and silverfish
crawling over the uneven floorboards.
Draped in a stained bedsheet
you whisper, What’s your favorite color?
Using our father’s mirror
you thought your face was grainy,
complexion crumbling, raised
on a diet of dust—Shh,
I hear his static. Sorry, you say,
bobby pins were in my mouth. Then,
What’s your favorite color?
I’m awake but can’t move.
Dad rolls marbles across the floor
to show he knows our hiding spot.
If this was a dream, you say, light
leaking down your face, it would
have a classic interpretation. The light
brightens. Tell me,
you slur, face flooding, what is it?
But white
is not a color, white is its absence,
and his nose is so full of blood.
Shepherd
A boy whose career placement test says Window Washer
asks the Cellist to pass a note
to a girl who has gotten Lumberjack
three times. Rare separately,
our class has a sister and brother
Trauma Surgeon and Cult Leader--wait,
what? Who got named
Systems Targeting Lead [STL]? No way,
that’s lower probability
than NFL Quarterback!
Our Algebra Teacher snaps, stops us
by blurting out that they never identified
the Serial Killer who almost murdered her.
He approached her in the library
to compliment her posture.
On the roof of the high school, he taught her
the wrong names of all the stars.
It was on the news and everything,
footage of an evidence bag with his phonebook
marked by wax drippings.
She shivers.
The worst thing you can do is believe you’re special.
She was friends with two Dancers
whose severed feet were found
in the Waxahachie like ice cubes
in white wine.
To this day she kicks the blue plastic bin
for the Garbage Man down her driveway,
wine bottles clinking, before the sun sets.
The Shepherd, daydreaming
out the window,
missed the story while watching a bird.
We missed the bird.
A boy whose career placement test says Window Washer
asks the Cellist to pass a note
to a girl who has gotten Lumberjack
three times. Rare separately,
our class has a sister and brother
Trauma Surgeon and Cult Leader--wait,
what? Who got named
Systems Targeting Lead [STL]? No way,
that’s lower probability
than NFL Quarterback!
Our Algebra Teacher snaps, stops us
by blurting out that they never identified
the Serial Killer who almost murdered her.
He approached her in the library
to compliment her posture.
On the roof of the high school, he taught her
the wrong names of all the stars.
It was on the news and everything,
footage of an evidence bag with his phonebook
marked by wax drippings.
She shivers.
The worst thing you can do is believe you’re special.
She was friends with two Dancers
whose severed feet were found
in the Waxahachie like ice cubes
in white wine.
To this day she kicks the blue plastic bin
for the Garbage Man down her driveway,
wine bottles clinking, before the sun sets.
The Shepherd, daydreaming
out the window,
missed the story while watching a bird.
We missed the bird.
--
Matthew Gilbert’s work has appeared in Narrative Magazine, PANK, Sugar House Review, Redivider, and elsewhere. They live in Connecticut, and measure the general success of life by the ratio of trees to people wherever they happen to be.
Matthew Gilbert’s work has appeared in Narrative Magazine, PANK, Sugar House Review, Redivider, and elsewhere. They live in Connecticut, and measure the general success of life by the ratio of trees to people wherever they happen to be.