Some small creature scurries and scampers inside

the length of my bedroom wall.

I don’t want to read any more about reading.

I don’t want to discuss literary theory,

to deconstruct deconstructionism.

All I want is to free the restless mouse

scurrying inside these walls. All I want is

to quiet my heart’s wild scampering.

Terry Martin worked as an English Professor for thirty years. She has published hundreds of poems, articles, and essays, and has edited journals, books, and anthologies. Her most recent book of poems, The Light You Find, was published by Blue Begonia Press. A lesbian, she lives and writes in Yakima, Washington—The Fruit Bowl of the Nation.