Leah Mueller: Don't Get Too Comfortable
VIPER
Repressed wrath is worse
than the kind that shows
teeth. It hides
under cartilage, conceals
sharpness behind gums. Suddenly,
the swollen jaws open. You might
be sitting quietly in traffic,
eating ordinary food, staring
at nothing. Wrath doesn't care,
as long as you're distracted.
Sneak assault thrusts hard
into your connective tissue,
ejaculates within your bones:
you are no longer connected
to anything, only floating in
pain with no foundation.
Wrath an Old Testament god,
not caring who it flattens.
Everything an obstacle, and you
didn't move fast enough.
Somebody else's divorce.
Bankruptcy or a bad heart valve.
Shame and hatred compressed
into random bullets. One of them
happened to hit you in the head.
Don't cry: misfortune
happens to everyone. Stay
quiet, position yourself
differently next time. Check
the exits before the movie begins.
Enjoy the show, but
don't get too comfortable.
Leah Mueller is an indie writer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of two chapbooks, “Queen of Dorksville” (Crisis Chronicles Press) and “Political Apnea” (Locofo Chaps) and three books, “Allergic to Everything”, (Writing Knights Press) “Beach Dweller Manifesto” (Writing Knights) and “The Underside of the Snake” (Red Ferret Press). Her work appears in Blunderbuss, Summerset Review, Outlook Springs, Crack the Spine, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.