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That
Was One Ferocious Tickle-Contest
by
Kathryn Jacobs
Believe
me, I absconded with the points;
black chubby points slid me-ward. I would dodge
and wiggle-digit till the scooped-up points
(reluctant as stuck noodles) toppled down
in floppy curls. I laughed intrepidly
and tickled until points that wouldn't budge
fell snickering at my feet – and so did he;
he whimpered, utterly bereft; a clown
whom I had pity on. But then he grinned,
foreshortened on the floor; a munchkin-man
with legs bent open, and I fell on him.
You're not allowed to think he let me win;
no, I insisted on it. And the limbs
that I tormented pinned me down, as planned –
_______________
Kathryn
Jacobs
is a medievalist-turned-poet with a chapbook called Advice
Column out at Finishing Line Press (2008), and a doctorate
from Harvard. A professor at Texas A & M – C, she has
published over a hundred poems in the last three years, at journals
like The New Formalist, Measure, Acumen, Decanto, Mezzo Cammin,
Washington Literary Journal, 14 by 14, Barefoot Muse, Slant, Poetry
Midwest, Poetry Midwest, Wordgathering, etc. Until 2005 she focused
primarily on scholarship, producing a book on medieval marriage
contracts, sixteen articles, and a scattering of poetry. In that
year, however, she lost her son Raymond at eighteen. Since then,
poetry has had more meaning.
That Was One Ferocious Tickle-Contest ©
2013 by Kathryn Jacobs
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