Susan Olding

Issue 20

The Reckoning

Booksmart,
that’s me.

Come for the small plates,
Stay for the chatter.

Whereas she—
silk reeling energy—

bites the hand. Would rather
wail than whisper.

Mine now.
Scribe tied. Can’t

escape, can only slam,
clash, ding each other’s

armor. All that warm
poison. Encaustic.

But no, no. I’m never sorry
we adopted.


Source & Method

A cut up from half a dozen newspapers and magazines, including a community paper, movie and restaurant reviews in the Globe and Mail, and back issues of the New Yorker. No new words added.


Susan Olding is the author of Pathologies: A Life in Essays. Her poetry and prose have appeared journals and anthologies including Desperately Seeking Susans and In Fine Form.


Photo by Walter Lee Olivares de la Cruz