Poem: “What Happened”

Sometimes her voice gets low 

like she’s telling me a secret.

–

I think people can’t listen 

to certain kinds of stories, 

she says. When they start

–

to hear it, they start

to change it, to listen instead 

to their fear.

–

It changes memory. 

That’s why when I told 

what happened,

–

it was misunderstood. 

People heard

their own fear: the stranger

–

at the door. His bouquet

of pallid flowers.

“What Happened,” from Best New Poets 2015 (Samovar Press). Copyright © by Cassie Donish. By permission of the poet.