Kristy Odelius is a poet and Assistant Professor of English at North Park University (Chicago, IL) where she teaches creative writing and 19th century British literature. She's a fan of gothic literature, tennis, and Baltic archipelagos. Her work has appeared in Notre Dame Review,Chicago Review, Combo, Versal, ACM, La Petite Zine, Diagram and others. Her poems are included in The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, (Cracked Slab Books, 2007). Odelius's first full-length collection of poems Strange Trades, is forthcoming from Shearsman Books in 2008.
Impostor With Housemaid’s Knee
Briefly she sees “life is terrible.”
Looking out she wants the window to be
lyrical about snow, dreamy for Hitchcock,
cold cash, hot property, anything.
But, it’s “wet and cold with instrumentation.”
Fountains tinkle in the distance.
She might say something like “then, the thaw.”
The smell of warm butter,
seven dollars, purple velour.
Wonderful dream!
This darkness is an apiary.
She risks saying—
her melancholy, la finestra,
moth’s wing or transparent sting.
|
* |
 |