each night,

the moon had the company of stars…

yet you, in basic, 

inoculated against

1000 afflictions,

are back

safe

(not one of the alphabetized dead as remembered as frogs)

but missing

something

nonetheless

you free to 

acclimate to

the reality

that camouflage

illusions 

………naked 

………………without being heard

………lost 

………………without being held

………blind,

………metaphorically,

………………without being fed

this need leads to invisible

disease till

you have 50 years

left, plus the conflicts

/

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 three-time Pushcart Prize nominee.