12 April 2005 | Vol. 5, No. 1

Page 5

The bed shuffled itself straight out the door,

little jerky movements on squeaky casters,

until one leg planted itself in the flowerbed.

The dust ruffle was bunched,

leaving the tender leg exposed

in Victorian peep show fashion.

In September the zinnias explode:

fiery oranges and fuchsias that

attract sleepy bumblebees,

who seemed utterly confused by this

abrupt steel monstrosity

with hibiscus, of all things,

blooming on the pillowcases.

About the author:

Malia Jackson is an MFA student at San Francisco State University, where she is the assistant poetry editor for Fourteen Hills, the SFSU review. She has taught mathematics and physics but now teaches claymation instead. She can be reached at .

For further reading:

Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 5, No. 1, where "Page 5" ran on April 12, 2005. List other work with these same labels: poetry.

42opus is an online magazine of the literary arts.

copyright © 2001-2011
XHTML // CSS // 508