My Mother Says I Walk Too Loud

Written by Ellie Brewster, Edited by Miriam Schatz

Every step I take sings

Power

I plant my foot on the ground

So I will never fall in love

Because they can’t handle the sound

Of my tears streaming down and collecting

A pool in my mouth where my voice drowns

I keep my eyes closed, I hold my lips silent

Like the mouse I found in the sticky trap thrashing

Begging to leave the cereal-scented darkness

So I called my mother to the kitchen to witness and

In her mouse-madness she threw the bastard out

Into the seething winter storm

I watched that mouse die without anything warm

Without the Earth to hold on to, no way to transform

To become one with that endless something, the something

I’m always searching for with every glance toward the sky

I didn’t love that mouse, but he didn’t deserve to die

My mother says I walk too loud, too proud

She hates the sound when my feet hit the ground

In the morning, I wake and sing

To the Earth and the mouse

Power, Power

Get out of this house.

Amendment for a Work You Will Never Read