Dislocation
by Marge Piercy
It happens in an instant.
My grandma used to say
’someone is walking on your grave.’
It’s that moment when your life
is suddenly strange to you
as someone else’s coat
you have slipped on at a party
by accident, and it is far
too big or too tight for you.
Your life feels awkward, ill
fitting. You remember why you
came into this kitchen, but you
feel you don’t belong here.
It scares you in a remote
numb way. You fear that you–
whatever you means, this mind,
this entity stuck into a name
like mercury dropped into water–
have lost the ability to enter your
self, a key that no longer works.
Perhaps you will be locked
out here forever peering in
at your body, if that self is really
what you are. If you are at all.
Posted on August 11th 2008 in Quotes
