Cammy Thomas
The Little X
I have to work so hard to click
the little x that gets me out of there.
It’s 1 a.m. and I could do, couldn’t I,
just one more episode, only the one?
Forty-three minutes of invented lives
that feel more real than mine.
Where are my children now,
speeding in cars, making love in the dark–
and did I remember my dinner?
It’s hard to get back to living:
a duller light, the still feel of the world,
older machines that lack this glow.
Cammy Thomas‘s collection, Tremors (Four Way Books), received 2022 Poetry Honors from the Mass Book Awards. Her first book, Cathedral of Wish, received the Norma Farber First Book Award from the PSA. A fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation helped her complete Inscriptions. Her poem, “Far Past War” was set to music by her sister, Augusta Read Thomas, and premiered at the Cathedral Choral Society in 2022. She lives in Bolton, Massachusetts. Her website: www.cammythomas.com.