The Shock

The shock will arrive via a phone call from your sister

in a strange house

a house where you have never slept

you’ve just arrived, with a suitcase

a suitcase full of books.

*

There is a phone call. At dinner time. The child must be fed.

There is an unexpected visitor who has been served

a glass of wine

the last

of the wine.

*

The shock arrives shockingly down the wire

you will always remember

that pause, before she spoke

and how the air you breathed

       changed shape.    

*

The conversation that was afoot

limps on

as you come back into the room dragging the shock

it’s a monstrous frantic putrid snot-green shock

it’s howling for blood.

*

Look. Already it has taken a pit bull munch

out of your softest parts

slipped you a dose of don’t-touch-me distance

just one of the gifts

that the shock packs in its kit.

*

You will stand on the doorstep in the chill night air

lifting a hand in farewell

the visitor is backing his vehicle out of the driveway

and it will be so strange, the strangest thing

you will be able to see everything at once.

Jennifer Compton