ISSUE TWENTY: RS: Steamy, y'all | next poem →

Voice Control

Claire Scott

under perfect voice control
          sit stay heel
my dog so desperately wants to please
nestles in my lap when the Warriors lose
fetches countless tennis balls plopping
them at my feet, tongue lolling,
looking up with limpid eyes
and I swear a smile

why is no one else like him
especially my daughter with tats and studs
waltzing out the door wearing
a see-through top over a two inch skirt
my son eating a fifth Oreo
staring straight at me
my husband sprawled on the couch
watching bowling baseball badminton
while crab grass grows another foot
& rats scuttle in the basement
          come Max come!

CLaire Scott is an award winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has been accepted by the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Enizagam, New Ohio Review and Healing Muse, among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.

ISSUE TWENTY: RS: Steamy, y'all | next poem →











ISSUE TWENTY: RS: Steamy, y'all

Vanessa Maki
   dance with ghosts

David Joez Villaverde
   The Things We Did Right

Linda Wojtowick
   Reset
   Private Account

Claire Scott
   Voice Control

Courtney LeBlanc
   Mood

R.A. Allen
   Buried Alive