1st

by Allison Whittenberg

Allison Whittenberg is an award-winning poet, short story writer, playwright, and novelist and a teacher for the Indiana Writers Center. Her novels are Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine, Life is Fine, Tutored (Random House 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010). Her work has appeared in Flying Island, Feminist Studies, Inconclast, and The Ekphrastic Review. She is author of the full-length short story collection, Carnival of Reality (Loyola University Press, 2022). Whittenberg is a six-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

1st

Shake me

Kiss me

Make me

Give in

Ignore my innocence

Appeal to my curiosity

Leave me to my uncertainty

In a few weeks

I’ll worry about reputation, AIDS, pregnancy

In a few years

I’ll worry about self-esteem.

Fine

I heard

a child's scream and I ignored it

because

it was a

child's scream.

lucency

amongst a breathless, debilitating,

incapacitating,

panic attack

i

told

myself

not to panic

and...

without warning

i

was

suddenly

all

right.

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