Plead the Fifth By Erika Beaver

Plead the Fifth By Erika Beaver

Please don’t ask me more questions

I don’t want to tell you anything

I have a right to due process

I don’t have to say a thing

Now let me go on with my day

There has been no harm done

The real guy you want has gone a-stray

I assure you, I’m not the one.

I feel like you are making me look

Like a criminal right now

I swear I’m not a crook

Don’t you raise your brow

At me, I’m telling you the truth now

Don’t you see?

I’m going to remain silent

Because that’s what I do best

Go find the real guy

Now, there’s a real test. 

Poem of the Day: Habeas Corpus

Posted:Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Knots, a thousand lights, in   

   sheer dark, aimed at my window,   

tinny crystals, so mother dies   

   in my sleep. The snow turns   

coarse, goes out. An axe sounds   

   where I'd never heard an axe before.   

Breathing becomes dangerous. I can't   

   help it, making me her, even   

before I was born, her brain burning   

   out patterns I follow like will   

o' the wisps, sparks popping.   

   I put on heels and find I can balance,   

twist my spine, bend to get my seams   

   straight on my own, no one to   

call on, like she called me, sheer nylon   

   turning on sheer skin under my palms.   

I pull on the ratty musquash coat.   

   I have the body. I move off in it,   

eddying, trying to see who I am now.   

   I totter down the street thinking,   

one day he'll be sorry. And here I am.   

   Sorry. I watch her getting smaller   

up the road. I watch us both, till   

   nothing's all there is.