"May I point something out?"
she asked,
fingering the fringe on the pillow's edge,
her feet curled beneath her in the corner of the couch.
She'd been silent thus far
as the others–
with great intensity–
critically dissected a poem written by another member.
Her small voice startled them
into a new place of attention.

"Well, of course," said the week's facilitator.

"We may be talking about two different things:
Yes, we're talking about his poem,
but we're also talking about the moldy, old bags
his poem asks us to unpack.
We don't like looking inside."

This was met with silence.

She hugged the pillow to her chest, took a breath, and continued:
"And really, if a poem helps us unpack,
no matter how smelly or forgotten the contents,
it must be a very good poem indeed."

To listen to this poem Download The Poetry Group

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.