A POEM by KATE EHRENBERG

bath poem #3

slept too deep after lunch

listening to a video

that promised to hypnotize me

but it was really a video of a woman

doing an impression of a hypnotist

surrounded in film

a boyish father in jeans

walks the perimeter

of the playground

fell back asleep thinking

I will be able to tell you

exactly what was said

puff and heat escape your mouth

and laugh and laugh

and I ask what’s so funny

had a horse accident at 11

haven’t been a risk-taker since

but I get sleepy in the tub

from the other room:

MIDI rendition of a medieval song

wrong number texts

from people who think

I’m an interior designer

I am not an interior designer–I am

a gentle institution–I am eager for dinner

and eager to be let off the hook

in the movie

one brother asks another

what do you do all day?

to which the other brother replies

what does anyone do all day?

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Kate Ehrenberg (she/her) lives in Queens, NY. Her writing has appeared in the Second Bullshit Anthology and BRUISER.