Poor Folk
The book on her nightstand
is by Dostoevsky, one of
his early novels. She
studied him in college,
wrote a master’s thesis on
The
Brothers Karamazov, his final.
The main character works as a copyist,
frequently belittled and picked on
by colleagues. His clothes
are worn and dirty. His
cousin is from the country.
He is in love.
But a rich man
proposes. She slowly
becomes accustomed to money
and leaves the copyist
alone. His plea goes
unanswered.
The book goes
unfinished. She has lost momentum.
Life happens too quickly. Two
full-time jobs leave no time
for Russian novels, only
Russian vodka.
-
It Speaks
A book begins to
speak,
tells me how lonely
it is
in dusty stacks,
especially
for a book of poems.
Only poets
read poetry,
unless
for academic
assessment
or love inspires a search
for clichés.
I take the poor
thing home,
prove the truth it
speaks,
a poet
granting poetry
its only wish.
-
"Poor Folks" and "It Speaks" were published in Overdue Poems, a chapbook of work by members of the Wright Library Poets in Celebration of
Libraries, Reading and Books, compiled and edited by Grace Curtis and Elizabeth
Schmidt and made possible by a grant from the Wright Memorial Public Library Foundation.
Eric
