“Flower Queen” by Laura Didyk, Sharpie on paper, 2015
I’m soaking in the tub trying to relax goddammit when I see a bee flying around and I start to get sad about the declining population of honeybees but then I notice it’s a wasp and it’s flying extremely close to the light bulb and I start to think of that story by Virginia Wolfe except that was about a moth and I don’t remember it very well because my brain isn’t as sharp as it used to be and I’ll probably end up with early onset Alzheimer’s like my grandfather but anyway how in the hell did a wasp get into the house maybe it slipped through the hole in the screen or came in through the front door and then flew upstairs into my bathroom I don’t know but I need some new screens and an honest handyman or else more wasps might get into the house and sting me and I can’t deal with any more pain; what if I develop itching and hives or an anaphylactic reaction and I’m still trying to relax go away wasp I don’t want to die but it’s getting harder to breathe and I can’t feel my lips or the tips of my toes or fingers and what if I’m having a panic attack and I pass out and drown how will anyone know it was that wasp that killed me?
Kristin Laurel is employed as an ED nurse and flight nurse. She writes to stay sane and sometimes nice. She lives in Waconia, MN and Asheville, NC and completed a two-year program in poetry at The Loft Literary Center (MPLS). Her work can be seen in CALYX, The Mainstreet Rag, Grey Sparrow, The Raleigh Review, The Mom Egg, The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review and many others. Her first book, Giving Them All Away, won the 2011 Sinclair Poetry Prize from Evening Street Press (Dublin, Ohio). To read a free copy, go to http://eveningstreetpress.com/
Read an interview with Kristin here.
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