In Praise of Boredom

By Suzanne O’Connell

The past four years have been like
having a dad who sells all the furniture
while I sleep,
breaks the windows over the sink,
throws out my stuffed bunny and lava lamp,
then promises to take me to the Ferris wheel.
He’s so loveable,
until he isn’t.
Like when he shoves me, yelling.
“Don’t bother me, wash those tears off your face.”

Later he bought me the gold lamé purse
that had tiny cells, making it collapse
like a golden puddle in my hands.
It had a handkerchief inside, lace
around the edges, ‘Thursday’
embroidered in pink on the front.

Thursday is the day the nice grownup
took the other one’s place,
stood with his hand on the Bible,
said, “My whole soul is in this.”
The grownup man has never lied to me
or sold our furniture
or broken my toys.
Not even one time.

Suzanne O’Connell’s recently published work can be found in North American Review, Poet Lore, Paterson Literary Review, The Summerset Review, Good Works Review and Pudding Magazine. O’Connell was awarded second place in the Poetry Super Highway poetry contest, 2019. She was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. She received Honorable Mention in the Steve Kowit Poetry Prize, 2019. Her two poetry collections, A Prayer for Torn Stockings and What Luck, were published by Garden Oak Press.

Photo by Agnieszka Kowalczyk on Unsplash .