Dummy

After “Fragment 31” by sappho

by Cat Perry

That motherfucker
bobbing and squinting
just like a nitwit,
barely listening
to the voice that
suspends my heart.

A glance
shoots through me,
robs the voice
from my throat,

sets blood on fire,
chills skin,
trembles bones,

saps color
from grass,
I die.

Cat Perry holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education from Manhattanville College. She later earned a Master of Arts in Composition Rhetoric from Lehman College. She has taught art for NYC public schools and currently teaches composition at CUNY. She plans to graduate from the CCNY Creative Writing MFA program in the spring of 2025.