Featured poem, ‘Fun With Therapy’ by Heather Bell
Fun With Therapy
The problem with poets is we like
to sound more interesting than we
are. The poet goes to therapy and says
she has been skinning herself
alive. How interesting! How probable and
dark! The poet writes long letters
to the therapist in which she says
her skills are in high demand, such as
tilting men, finger to head, toppling
them over. Poets like to take it too
far,
disease themselves. No one is ever truly
that lonely, the therapist tells
her. The poet
writes a list of possibilities: tomb
herself into
the house like a pharaoh, disappear. The
moon
is a supermarket, she says. The cat
refuses to come
home. How beautiful and weird! How
humble of
her to acknowledge she has gone off the
deep end,
so early in the game. Here she sees a
sky of clouds in the blot. There she
sees knuckles and a wad of flesh. The
therapist evaluates
the situation like it is a police report:
woman’s face is a tight shiny surface of
worry. Woman’s hands keep moving over
this disappointment. Woman
says she hasn’t told the truth for years
and we have to believe her.
Heather Bell’s work has been published in Rattle, Grasslimb, Barnwood, Poets/Artists, Third Wednesday and many others. She was nominated for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Pushcart Prize from Rattle and also won the New Letters 2009 Poetry Prize. Heather has also published four books. Any more details can be found here: http://hrbell.wordpress.com
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