ISSUE 39
May 2008

Peter Swanson

 

Peter Swanson lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. He has recently been published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, The Lyric, Measure, Unsplendid, and The Vocabula Review. His book reviews can be found on popmatters.com.

The Lesson    


And one by one
Miss Robinson

had all the class
stop singing

until she came
to only me:

alone, abashed, off-key,
my heart a racing metronome

inside my scrawny chest.
"Ah, you're the one—

you're out of tune,"
she said, excusing me

from ever having
to sing again.

 

 

Peter Swanson: Poetry
Copyright ©2008 The Cortland Review Issue 39The Cortland Review