Anti-Heroin Chic
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

​

1/31/2021

Poetry by Hayley Mitchell Haugen

Picture
           Colby Stopa CC



While I Was Sleeping

I did not hear Kathryn screaming, 
six doors down and cold in her flannel nightdress, 
calling for help from her dewy backyard, 
her silver walker shining by the watchful eye of the moon. 
Long before the police came, I had already closed my windows, 
checked for strangers behind my shower curtain, 
retired behind the locked door of my room, 
and lay there, dreaming of my own sweet comfort, 
because that’s what I do while I am sleeping. 

Two days later, while I napped in the afternoon heat 
with Oprah on, they came again, the police 
with their shiny weapons drawn against the pain 
of our houses. They called for Sheila, across the street 
with her beautiful, dark-stained garage door and trellis roses. 
Come out, they said, don’t do it. 

I woke up then and wished those police would poke 
their long nightsticks into the deepest closets of all our houses, 
that they would upturn beds and dusty bookcases and accuse 
all the sick and crazed and suicidal among us, 
cleansing our houses each by each until they found him, 
in that corner house just out of sight of my own, 
the man I call uncle who once molested me, my fifth grade friend, 
my little cousins since then for twenty years, 
while I’ve feigned safety, while I’ve feigned comfort, 
while I’ve been sleeping.

​​
Picture
Hayley Mitchell Haugen holds a Ph.D. in 20th Century American Literature from Ohio University and an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington. She is currently Professor of English at Ohio University Southern, where she teaches courses in composition, American literature, and creative writing. Her chapbook What the Grimm Girl Looks Forward To appears from Finishing Line Press (2016), and poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Rattle, Slant, Spillway, Chiron Review, Verse Virtual and many other journals. Light & Shadow, Shadow & Light from Main Street Rag Publishing Company (2018) is her first full-length collection. She edits Sheila-Na-Gig online: https://sheilanagigblog.com/ and Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.
​


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.