sleepwalking

by Eileen Murphy

            the wrinkled girl

shops for hairpins shops for shoes

buys a brassiere that becomes a brazier

sucks on candy mushroom clouds

            the gray-haired girl

lurks & sighs in stores parading jackets

curious hats beckoning skirts

sweats & skimps in criminal dressing rooms

slips smirking clerks her shaking credit cards

            BUY SAVE DIE

            in my empty condo

i sit

TV blue on my face

dried riverbeds

            mended

            with vitamin E lotion

shampoo                      covers gray

diet plan                      disappears fat

o cruel gods     kyrie eleison

* * * * *

"sleepwalking" was originally published in Poetry Motel (1999).

A former Chicagolander, Eileen Murphy now lives 30 miles from Tampa. She received her Masters degree from Columbia College, Chicago. She teaches literature and English at Polk State College in Lakeland and has recently published poetry in Thirteen Myna Birds, Tinderbox (nominated for Pushcart Prize), Yes Poetry, The American Journal of Poetry, Rogue Agent, Deaf Poets Society, and other journals.