Blending Techniques 1 & 2

by Lauren Bender

Don’t tell me
there are people
in this room;

I can see them
but that does not
mean they exist.

My sweater sleeve
is mouth-soaked
with the fear

of swallowing.
I am on a mission
to be small

with furtive eyes
like any animal
with suspicions,

pricking its ears
to the distant sobs
in the hills, angry

in anticipation of
being hunted. Then
angry I never am.

The Iliad is long
and lonely, an ideal
cover for learning

to love one’s isolation.
Sometimes there is only
war, but it’s war

preserved in poetry,
which makes it easier
to murmur on, to fail

to hear the moments
no heart is pounding
or see how the jungle

never misses me, how
others simply take more
space when I am gone.
&

Lauren Bender

Lauren Bender lives in Burlington, VT. Her work has appeared in IDK Magazine, The Collapsar, Gyroscope Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Yes Poetry, and others.

Artist: Fabio Sassi


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