Blue Bonnet Review

A Literary Journal Featuring Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction by Talented Writers Around the Globe

A literary journal featuring poetry, fiction and nonfiction by writers around the globe. 

In Media Res

Lee Chilcote

I arrived late to the party
after the food was cold and half-eaten
after the hosts who were half-drunk
had become half-sober
in the middle of stories
about things that happened before I was born
I slipped in like a quiet gift
they’d find cleaning up

Late to school
I swung open the metal doors
Heads swiveled as I dropped in
like a wrong note in a measure of rest
Late to the playground games
my own shoes
walked off without me

Late to the restaurant
my date waited
to the office meeting
where they decided my future
church on Sunday
where grace drifted down
on my shoulders and then fell off

When I finally arrived
I found my voice waiting
like a glass of champagne
at the party I was missing
my paper getting an A+
my mouth full of baubles
my hips sinking into the soft nest
between her thighs
where I rested for a millisecond

On time the gray hairs of whiskers
sprouted on my cheeks
and children sprung forth
and grew tall like corn
I hoisted them up
and surveyed my kingdom
lining up my mistakes like milk jugs

Too soon they stared at me
blank as new odometers
shimmied up my trunk
swung from my branches
and rode like kings and queens
into the future
devouring life in great gulps of air