Twisted

by Kelly Nickie


Seeking refuge
beneath cotton polyester

Cannot get past
these knots
tightening around my organs

I used to treat them
with positive affirmations
administered by daytime TV

A black dog got in here
he pants loud against my ear
nuzzles along my vertebrae

I’ve tried to move him
but his eyes water
with his whine

now it feels
too warm
to leave


* * * * *

Kelly Nickie is an avid reader, writer, and coffee drinker living within the perimeter highway of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She finds mundane objects and phrases of the everyday and turns them into second thoughts. Her work has been published in Pure Slush, Juice, Generation, Door = Jar, and in the Winnipeg Free Press.