Dorothea Lasky

YOU THOUGHT

You thought I’d flipped the switch and I hadn’t

• You thought I’d left the window open
• And I wouldn’t
• You thought I’d turn the dial up
• But I didn’t
• You thought I’d ring the sun the super
• But I shouldn’t
• You thought I’d unlock the beehive
• But I wouldn’t
• You thought I’d sing the dirge
• But I couldn’t
• You thought I’d cook the rabbit
• And I hadn’t
• You thought I’d come back that day
• And I didn’t
• You thought I’d tend the flowers
• But I couldn’t
• You thought I turned the lock
• But I hadn’t
• You thought I’d open the door
• See you
• But I couldn’t
• You thought I’d lie down
• But I couldn’t
• It kills me still
• I couldn’t
• I couldn’t

DOROTHEA LASKY is the author of four full-length collections of poetry: Rome (Liveright/W.W. Norton), as well asThunderbird, Black Life, and Awe. She has also written several chapbooks, including Poetry Is Not a Project (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). Her writing has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and Boston Review, among other places. She is a co-editor of Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (McSweeney’s, 2013). She lives in New York City, where she is an Assistant Professor of Poetry at Columbia University.