Merrill Edlund

See you tomorrow
   In memory of Hayden Carruth

The next time you see a line
Of geezers shuffling toward the check-out
Remember they are entering the arcade of
Death

 

The next time you see me
I will be easily recognizable
I’ll be the one with crippled swollen fingers
spent too much time at the computer
punching out my reality
I’ll be hobbling beside you
holding your words
And wondering what they mean
Day after day

My friends say my writing is too dark
too emotionally
disturbing
and I think of what you said
That you can’t blame the poet
more than the rest

and I feel comforted that I will not
cause the fall out
will not be responsible
for their delusions

and I hope to see you tomorrow
in that floating cloud of poets
looking down on earth and
thumping people on the head saying
wake up
wake up
what the hell are you thinking

 

Merrill Edlund’s writing has appeared in or is forthcoming in Blue Skies Poetry, Worth Architectural Magazine, Crazy Pineapple Press, Fieldstone Review, Four Ties Lit Review, Spring vol viii, Joy Interrupted, An Anthology on Motherhood and Loss Fat Daddy’s Farm Press. Merrill holds an MEd in technology. She teaches high school English and Creative Writing online in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.