Telling the Truth

I am not who
you think I can
be in your palace
with your dreams
of tomorrow.

When I run, things
are lost – shoes,
birds, hope.

And baby, I feel like running.

You’ll figure it out.
I’ll become a soft
memory, tiny in your
recollections, an
imposter in a blue
dress. You’ll become
a ruler to be respected,
maybe feared, maybe
laughed at with your
shoulder pads and your
slicked back hair.

In another world, I’ll
bake pumpkin pie
for myself and sweep
nothing. The mice and
I will stop dreaming.

Sleep will become routine.

Sarah Ghoshal‘s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Arsenic Lobster, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Empty Mirror, Red Savina Review and Broad! Magazine, among others. Her chapbook, Changing the Grid, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She earned her MFA from Long Island University and teaches at Montclair State University. Sarah lives in New Jersey with her husband, her ten month old daughter and her dog Comet, who flies through the air with the greatest of ease.