Identity Crisis

by Margaret D. Stetz


This poem used to be a story
before it lost the way toward closure
it was supposed to end with sunrise
a revelation
a dawning in all senses
but the protagonist
stayed up all night
and nothing changed
supporting characters
fell flat
their dialogue no wittier
than lines you’d hear
as people pass
beside an open window
even the natural setting
meant to function as a metaphor
was uncooperative
the rain remaining
merely rain
the wind that should have whistled
ominously
never showing up at all
such disappointment
so what was left but poetry
where nothing has to happen
and no one has to learn
(because no one ever does
but just repeats
and carries on)
where lifetimes
come and go
not in an arc
but in an
oscillating moment?


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Margaret D. Stetz is the Mae & Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and Professor of Humanities at the University of Delaware, where she teaches courses that reflect the intersection of the arts. Recently, her poetry has appeared in A Plate of Pandemic, C*nsorship Magazine, Kerning, Mono, Review Americana, Rushing Thru the Dark, West Trestle Review, Hare’s Paw, Existere, Literary Cocktail, Dark Matter, and other journals, as well as in the Washington Post.