Imaginary hedgehogs

by Michelle Hartman

It’s the writers fate
to create imaginary friends
        lose them in course of work.
But where do they go
these constructs?

Everyone knows a door
once opened can be entered
from either direction.
Is this where socks
and reading glasses go?

Do those ill-used characters go quietly
or desperately grasp door frame
hide under bed, squeeze through pet door.

Quantum physics tells us the act
of observing alters reality.
Does the imagination
ruled by electricity in the brain
create a spark, an idea,
observed at length by writer
become a disturbed reality?

Consider the ecological
or sociological implications
of our human endeavor.
Should we worry or
or merely continue
strolling along with night, wondering
which of her children, sleep or death
she will send to find us?

by Michelle Hartman

          and he wasn’t a poet. Not yet
not until he developed a hatred of articles
and a love of obscure words.  No one cared
that he defied mortality on lined sheets of paper.

At parties he’d tell people that poetry
beats the sound of jackals trapped in a piano
and my predicates are stronger
than my commas.
With the social skills of a Trappist monk he wasn’t
invited often.  When the papers piled
up, neighbors found him
dried and brittle
as the fire hazard stacked around him.

by Michelle Hartman

The Doctor speaks into a mic,
body of white male
seventy-two inches long,
one hundred and ninety pounds.
The condition of my skin and overall
body structure are noted. 
Long cuts are made down my front
and I should feel something but,
I’d stopped feeling
long before
I ended up here.

There is no white light.
I’ve tried all the doors.
I am stuck between my last breath
and the one that will not be coming.

I’ve counted the flower arrangements
limousines, and shovels of dirt.
And I sit here keeping
trashy youths from lounging
the school day away
fade into a lovely
worth my while. 

Michelle Hartman’s third book, Lost Journal of My Second Trip to Purgatory, was just released from Old Seventy Creek Press. It is a poetic treatment of child abuse and the effects it has on adult living.  It is the first book of its kind by a recognized publisher and is available on Amazon.

Her other poetry books, Irony and Irreverence and Disenchanted and Disgruntled, from Lamar University Press, are also available on Amazon.

Besides the above publishing credits, she is the editor for the online journal, Red River Review and holds a BS in Political Science-Pre Law and a Certificate in Paralegal studies.