Nothing new. Messy room.
Mismatched. Teacher dull.
Hair tangled. Lunch room balk.
Cigar box full of broken chalk.

Missed assignment. Deadline
passed. Theme obscure.
Outclassed. Scratched
albums. No sleeves. Order
wrong. Apologies.

Paid fines. Unread. Librarian
no friend.  Cracked spine.
Folded sheet. Bill due last week.
Two reminders. Come on!
Account overdrawn.

Out sick. (Never late.)
Migraines, explains.
Little sleep. Out of cream.
Coffee black. Complains.

Poem fodder. Wrong order.
Rearrange. Cut and paste.
Rhyme corrupted. Interrupted.
Dumb song. Sing along.

Chords fretted. Voice
ragged. Notes. Tunings. Staffs.
Finger picks don’t fit.
Forgets. Remembers.
Laughs.

Selected byNolcha Fox
Image credit:Dan Gold

Sara Clancy is a Philadelphia transplant to the Southwest.  Her chapbook Ghost Logic won the 2017 Turtle Island Quarterly Editors Choice Award. Among other places, her poems have appeared in Off the Coast, The Linnet's Wings, Crab Creek Review, The Madison Review, Misfit Magazine, Avatar Review and Verse Wisconsin. She lives in the desert with her husband, their dog, two ordinary cats and a psychotic cross-eyed one.