Catherine Wald

JOY WEARS A STOCKING MASK

You wouldn't recognize it if it was standing
right in front of you.

It won’t be.

You don't actually know what it looks
like.

It's going to sneak up behind you when you
least expect it.

It's going to put a gun to your head, hijack
your SUV, disable your tracking device and
tear off with you into the desert
at 90 MPH.

What happens next is
too gruesome to go into.

Afterwards, enamored of your captor,
you'll adopt arcane dialects,
abandon allegiances.

When it's all over, you won't be able
to describe it to a sketch artist or
pick it out of a line-up.

Even if you want to.


Catherine reads "Joy Wears a Stocking Mask":



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Catherine confesses: "It seems to me that joy has a very difficult time trying to enter the human heart. We put up so much resistance that desperate means are sometimes called for."

CATHERINE WALD is an author and poet with an unimpressive criminal record. Her chapbook, Distant, burned-out stars was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011.