Marjorie Maddox
XXX-XX-XXXX
Not here, no,
not obediently typed
____________before name,
beside height_____________,
below weight____________,
alongside eye color__________,
hair color_____________,
marital status_______,
number of children___,
number of pregnancies___,
inside skin and all
affiliations, inside_________ me,
now___________ blank. No longer
here___________
or here _____________,
bowing to the requested,
the required, to the fill-in-the-form
formalities of the everyday but also
somewhere else unlisted______________,
imprinted on the fingertips of strangers
(names unknown) clicking their way across
(required field here ___________)
cyberspace, across who I am
or was here______________
and over here_____________
before everything (please list items
in order of disappearance)
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
was stolen (add location, if
known_______________),
one priceless (estimate worth)
number (identification needed)
at a time (please list time of day
and hit Return). Thank you,
no thank you,
no.
Professor at Commonwealth University, Presence assistant editor, and WPSU Poetry Moment host, Marjorie Maddox has published 16 collections of poetry—including the Shanti Arts ekphrastic collaborations Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For (with Karen Elias) and In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind (with her artist daughter Anna Lee Hafer www.hafer.work )—as well as a story collection, 4 children’s books, and Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and Keystone (co-editor with Jerry Wemple). www.marjoriemaddox.com