An arm in the darkened kitchen corner,
a leg in the yard, under the old oak tree.
My plastic-molded, smiling face
grinning stupidly under the bed.
Dust bunnies collect in my blonde hair;
doggy chew marks puncture my sea-blue eyes.
How can tears streak my cheeks?
The cold draft from the floor vent
makes my teeth ache.
Without you, my plastic joints are stiff;
I had no energy to fight off the dog.
Grief took my soul; anguish ruptured my heart—
Why should I care about dog spit?

Susan A. Wright

Susan A. Wright is Associate Professor of English for Campbellsville University. Her areas of interest include fiction, poetry, rhetoric, and composition studies. Former publications include the Scrolls of Magick: The Land of Faerie, which took 2nd place in The Great Southern American Novel Contest; “Reader Agency in the (Re)reading and (Re)writing of Japanese Graphic Novels,” presented at the Queen City Comics Conference; “Dungeons, Dragons, and Discretion: A Gateway to Gaming, Technology, and Literacy” in Gaming Lives in the 21st Century; “Invader” in Low Implosions: Writings on the Body; “To Write, With Love” at The Watson Conference; “The Self-Righteous and The Sinner-Saint” at the M/MLA Conference; “Our Lady of Love and War” in Treasured Poems of America; “Rose of Sharon” in Crossroads; “My Pegasus” in Creative Kids; and “RSVP Continues to Analyze Local Sites for Handicapped Accessibility,” in Elizabethtown's The News-Enterprise. She received a doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Louisville.