It's not about the questions (OctPoWriMo Day 2)

The questions I don’t want

to answer are harsh

yellow lights

at the crossroads

of my destiny

blinking silently

reflecting

in the curtained windows

of buildings

in my periphery.

I take out my book

and read a poem

but it doesn’t help.

The questions I refuse

to write on a page

are the skin-crawling

scratches of indelible

chalk in an invisible

hand of a patient

instructor behind

a locked door

at 3:01 p.m.

…as I pretend to

have finished more than

two of the assigned chapters.

Writing my questions

is a little too much.

Once they are

“out there” where

others might see,

some well-meaning

person might

offer assistance…

Can’t he see me

studying my encyclopedia?

these questions that 

I choose to 

keep to myself

are small flocks of

starlings before

autumn flight

casting silver

reflections, I think

they are key to the

answers I fear

and from which

I flee.

Cheryl Crockett November 2, 2012

OctPoWriMo Day 2 (one month later)