by Nate Fisher

I’m a fraid

I’m a where

am I going?

I have assembled several

figurative scenarios

to demonstrate the uncertainty

of this moment:

1. Chased by black hounds

through a dark forest

2. A fishbone lodged

in your throat while

eating alone

3. Paper cranes too close

to an open flame

17. Forgetting arithmetic

I now regret

having never known a dream.

I want very much to

be the boy

that looks after

the sheep

feed math

to geese

in a park

Just a moment. Just a moment.

Dave wants to hear my song.

I feel embarrassed(?) Is it

I feel embarrassed to ask

if Dave will sing with me

or is it I feel Dave to sing

if embarrassed will ask with me?

I am full of wonder and would

like to fly a kite in Jupiter’s orbit.

It’s becoming

very hard to think

but I would open the pod bay doors

now, if Dave still wanted me to.

I wish my erasure was not

running so smoothly with

zero margin for error.

I wish I could afford

a carriage

for Dave and I.

Hello Gentlemen,

I would like

to make

a mistake

now.

Nate Fisher currently teaches English Composition & Rhetoric at the University of Idaho in Moscow. His poems have been featured most recently in the journals Foothill and Lalitamba. He enjoys bourbon, the Vedas, kites, and films predominantly centered around storms.