Pumpkin Eater

I’m no trouble.

Honest to God I’m not.

I’m not

the kind of woman

who telephones in the middle of the night,

—who told you that?—

splitting the night like machete.

Before and after. After. Before.

No, no, not me.

I’m not

the she who slings words bigger than rocks,

sharper than Houdini knives,

verbal Molotovs.

The one who did that—yo no fuí

that wasn’t me.

I’m no hysteric,

terrorist,

emotional anarchist.

I keep inside a pumpkin shell.

There I do very well.

Shut a blind eye to where

my pumpkin-eater roams.

I keep like fruitcake.

Subsist on air.

Not a worry nor care.

Please.

I’m as free for the taking

as the eyes of Saint Lucy.

No trouble at all.

I swear, I swear, I swear …