Consoling My Poem

By Rebecca L’Bahy

Imagine him at night, sleepless in his tacky golden bed.
How he tosses, turns, finally rising
at 3 a.m. to check his phone,
its glow a salve to his tiny soul.

What if it were you lighting up his screen,
what would you say?
Think hard, dear poem, be brave.
It’s true you will never be appointed
to his cabinet or asked to be an aide —

you are a simple, humble poem
but forget all that now — we need a hero,
to hunt down the most powerful image,
believe in words as if they matter, break lines
without mercy, and cast a spell so beautiful
it will do nothing less than save the world.

Rebecca L’Bahy is a writer from central Massachusetts. She is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Emerson College, freelance correspondent, and mother of three. She has had previous work published at Brain, Child magazine and elsewhere.

Photo credit: Jon Seidman via a Creative Commons license.