About the Poems - DI
About the Poems
by Donald Illich The bellhop took my luggage up to my room: a moldy mattress on the floor, cockroaches singing in the bathroom, a toilet without a sanitizing strip. I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay. Outside my window I saw the Wicked Witch. She yelled about discrimination in storybooks, shook a handful of bloody straw above her head. At night her cackling made it hard to sleep. In the hallway I heard a donkey braying and a baby crying, and I thought I should go outside and help them. When I opened the door, a giant pair of teeth chased me into the laundry room. The Tooth Fairy asked me if I’d seen where it went after she rescued me, then searched all the rooms, especially under the pillows. A pamphlet on the table stated religious services to Isis, Athena, and June Cleaver occurred hourly in the basement altar. Sacrifices of husbands seemed to be very popular, for not taking out the garbage, watching pornography, or neglecting to listen. When I discovered my body on tomorrow’s menu, I tried to leave, but when I reached the front door I saw lambs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and cows falling from the sky, hitting the sidewalk. The bellhop dragged me back in and returned my room key. “If you watch long enough you might see a platypus.”