Except, and: on the wooden bench outside the courtroom

Abstract

except, and: on the wooden bench outside the courtroom Daneen Wardrop (bio) except the lady visits, muscles into the residents’ sing-alongrips out a contralto as if a mighty fortress though the mood in the room is a real piperoo residents compliment heron their fear and though we got Dad out of her housestill she robs him does it by way of Mrs. gushes to usher home improvementsher travel list * when someone in a room yawns, everyone in a room yawns [End Page 48] except the narcissist * close my eyes that bone-scraping feeling sitting next to a kidnapping * after she leaves he’ll saywho was that? * but now, as if forbidden to move or tic, Dad, flattened against upholstery irons his face impeccable, vigilant careful he doesn’t trigger her scan [End Page 49] on the wooden bench outside the courtroom while my brother’s inside, speaking for us my sister and nephew and I sit in the hall only witnesses we swearon our waiting it’s what witnesses do though inside the courtroom are the wordswrapped in wet dishrags if I squeeze my ear to the wall not enough—if I fish from my purse an empty Altoids tin and stethoscope it between wall and ear— of course I do that, who wouldn’t— I can hear the judge take out his glass eye set it with a dull tick on the desk instruct the juryto rotate around this exact blue globe churning a hexing once-upon— this terrifying instruction, where in the middle of— [End Page 50] a charm of magpies, a flink of cows, a wake of buzzards— a binder of attorneys— a fact ranges I crush the tin more firmly to the wall, hear clearly a jabberwocky of jackalopes shaking through the court and shrieking contraltos— the Viking-helmeted lady who kidnapped our father and his diaries unsheathes a folded piece of paper—it’s her damp bucket list— a doylt of swine, a pladge of wasps, a fluther of jellyfish jaw wrenching she shows how put upon she is throws the list on the judge’s benchand for his favor, supplicates— he tells the room he will tolerate no lists but hers no suppuration of lists but hers [End Page 51] barks to the jury a clowder of cats their job is done an intrigue of kittens they can vacate, for he has a vacation to tend to (I swear on a tin box he says this) and as he exits extracts fresh sunglasses to cut the blue-sky glare [End Page 52] Daneen Wardrop Daneen Wardrop has authored four books of poetry: The Odds of Being, Cyclorama, Silk Road, and Life as It. She is the recipient of an Independent Publisher Book Award, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and Poetry Society of America Robert H. Winner Award. Her work has appeared in the Iowa Review, AGNI, Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. In addition, Wardrop is the author of several books of literary criticism, mostly about Emily Dickinson. Copyright © 2020 University of Nebraska Press