A Copy of Szymborska’s Collected Poems Abandoned on a Table

no clocks in the methadone / prison /
rehab
just shuffling
mealtimes with plastic forks no knives
smoke breaks group time et
cetera
            we line up and shuffle

szymborska stands
on the balcony in a pencil skirt
looking out over the row houses
maybe all this / is happening in some lab?
she asks

nurses joke about the methadone
as they dole it out they call it cocktails
in the med room they stumble
cackle aping its effects 

                                      this shit
makes you a zombie and then it
kills you I growl my face hard
                                       they get
real serious
apologize

no clocks
                          just shuffling
the tables
                 always sticky

time for crafts!
says the nurse
keys jangling
we line up and shuffle

the world doesn’t take flight
the way dreams do says szymborska
she points me out

I am full and loud with dignity

---

Frances Donovan’s chapbook, Mad Quick Hand of the Seashore, was named a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards. Her poetry and interviews have appeared in The Rumpus, Heavy Feather Review, Lily Poetry Review, Solstice, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from Lesley University and is a certified Poet Educator with Mass Poetry. Her first full-length collection is forthcoming from Lily Poetry Review Books. She once drove a bulldozer in a Pride Parade while wearing a bustier. You can find her climbing hills in Boston, and online at gardenofwords.com.