Suite 520

/ Issue 11.2 /

The line of chairs up against the walls
are vigilantes keeping track of the fish
hunkered behind a bubbling castle. Relax
say pictures of waterfalls and grasses.
From tables that grip the bristling carpet
People and Redbook are flashing their teeth.

Eyes shift as they keep tabs on the porthole
of the swinging door where one by one
we follow versions of our names
to a small room. Curtain, papered table,
pivoting screen where they show us
the scan, and how the wait goes on.

Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau published five books of poetry, most recently Among the Gorgons (University of Tampa Press, 2016) and A Sunday in God-Years (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was twice awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. She was invited by the late Robert Wallace to co-write the textbook Writing Poems (Longman), now in its eighth edition. She taught for 22 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she served as Senior Editor of BkMk Press and Contributing Editor of New Letters. A lifelong baseball fan and a graduate of the University of Houston doctoral program in Creative Writing, Michelle, who died in November 2017, lived to see a team she loved—the Houston Astros—win the World Series.
Michelle Boisseau

Also by Michelle Boisseau (see all)

Author: Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau published five books of poetry, most recently Among the Gorgons (University of Tampa Press, 2016) and A Sunday in God-Years (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was twice awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. She was invited by the late Robert Wallace to co-write the textbook Writing Poems (Longman), now in its eighth edition. She taught for 22 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she served as Senior Editor of BkMk Press and Contributing Editor of New Letters. A lifelong baseball fan and a graduate of the University of Houston doctoral program in Creative Writing, Michelle, who died in November 2017, lived to see a team she loved—the Houston Astros—win the World Series.