Poem a day 2015: 16

Secret Fever

I have brought my fever

to campus

and my infant cough,

now just a tickle,

a little

thickness

at the back of my throat.

I have brought my stuffy nose

and the constriction

between my eyebrows,

pulling my eyes

together and back,

sinking them in the

gray memory foam

of my quiescent brain.

I am holding myself ready

for the flu’s full

arrival,

here in my office,

the way I might await

the eventual knock on my door

of a long lost lover

who hurt me and

who has been hiding himself

in Brazil,

or Antarctica,

for twenty years.

I am alone here,

keeping my fever

secret

at the back of my head,

like the promise of

a drink -- something

intoxicating and

sweet

waiting with the dusk,

and my home’s inviting

yellow light,

to take me in.