O apple, O flesh
by Karen Massey
O to be
patient, patient,
to question,
to listen.
They no longer held the lively conversations
of earlier times, getting into bed in some
small hotel room, to urge each other
to be deep, fancy underwear in the evening,
a better position later on. Sometimes
he would wake up and
grin, as if expecting to hear
the voice of gold,
and comfort
SOURCE: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (pg 28/48, gutenberg.org).
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This is an erasure poem. Kafka and I were both born on July 3rd, so my interest in his writing began when I was a kid.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Massey‘s poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and print publications in Canada, the US and UK, and on the internet — most recently at The Found Poetry Review‘s PoMoSco Project, Inky Needles, Silver Birch Press, and in several volumes of Ottawater.com. She lives in Ottawa, Canada, a short walk from where a 100-year-old vertical lift bridge spans the historic Rideau canal. Her second chapbook is Strange Fits of Beauty & Light (above/ground press, 2014).
