Kenneth Pobo

SUDDEN FEAR

I watch her car pull out.
It surprises me that I'm breaking
in to my neighbor Meg's house,
slipping in through a bedroom
window she left open.

I don't know what to take,
leave her bank book
on her desk. She has constantly
called me names: faggot,
cocksucker, slimy ass.
My mom would say
follow Jesus and turn
the other cheek—
I shouldn't complain—after all,
Meg hasn't crucified me.

Or has she?
Word nails dig in deep,
her voice the hammer.

I stash her wedding picture,
Meg and her dead husband Bob,
under my arm,
crawl out. Later,
I see cops talking with her.

I prop the picture
against a pillow
so Bob, Meg, and I
can watch Joan Crawford
in Sudden Fear.


Ken reads "Sudden Fear":



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Ken confesses: "'Sudden Fear' is a 'what if' poem. I imagine myself (or a self like my own) doing something that I would never do. I remember the insults growing up and wishing I could find a way to make them stop—and get back at those who said them. Sudden Fear is one of my favorite Crawford films. Joan, who plays a dramatist, marries a guy who turns out to be a vicious creep. She has to use great skill to thwart him."

KENNETH POBO has a new book forthcoming from Blue Light Press called Bend Of Quiet. His work has appeared in Indiana Review, Mudfish, Nimrod, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.