Directive

Take me
to your leader,

I said —
so they’d know

how hollow
it is

to be followed.

Wax

A ball of wax
is the whole
ball of wax,
no matter
how small,
no matter
how soft
or hard,
or how
many
rooms
it fills
or fails
to fill
with
light.

Bridal

I didn’t want
a wedding—I
wanted cake.
I didn’t
want cake
so much
as I wanted
those figurines
atop sweet tiers.
I didn’t want
the figurines, not
really. What I
wanted was
to be them—
hard and plastic,
machined
into being
with another,
as alive as
an ornament
can be,
on a sea
of buttercream,
someone taking
a bite of me,
someone thinking
I might be real.

John Doe
Poet, Independent Writer
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Andrea Cohen