Judith Skillman
My Fear
Most steadfast companion,
she fishes for fight, flight, fawn.
She wants me to play dead but I am alive.
Dark red her yawn full of teeth.
Native to the country of persecution,
raged at as a child, who could tell
how strong she’d become, her groan
the instrument I play instead of music.
When I capitulate, she grows high
as the Washington Monument. I count
steps to remain sane. When I refuse
to climb she uses the ruse of tyranny
over which I am powerless.
No use side stepping nor acting coy.
She uncoils braids of hair, exposes
the view from her turret in a country
unlike anything either of us ever wanted to see.
Black birds caw at a black-black sky.
Judith Skillman is the author of several poetry collections including most recently Subterranean Address: New and Selected Poems (Deerbrook Editions, 2023). Her poems have appeared in Threepenny Review, LitMag, Zyzzyva, Cimarron Review, Bracken Magazine, and other journals. With Linera Lucas, Skillman co-edited the volume When Home Is Not Safe: Writings on Domestic Verbal, Emotional and Physical Abuse (Exposit Books, 2021).
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