Confessions of an Obsessive Compulsive

We imagine letters, how O keeps going round

and round, mumble syllables into our palms

like old women praying at the breakfast table.

We place our daffodils just so, whisper mantras

near the spice nook, tarragon, saffron, ginger root. Strange

pebbles, our thoughts roll and roll until our tongues

grow mossy. When our sickness faints, our minds

are bright and neat as cotton on the line, our hands

steady as pincushions. When it rises, doorways collapse,

the silver knob its own round disaster.

Our knucklebones stiffen; we surge to a window's

warmth, stroke their simple latches.

Elizabeth Bruno

ELIZABETH BRUNO is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside where she received a BA in English with a writing concentration. She lives and works in Wisconsin. Her poems have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Stirring, Eclectica, Lily, The Potomac, Kaleidowhirl, and Shakespeare’s Monkey Review.