Mary Soon Lee

So This Is the Prison
After Ted Kooser’s “So This Is Nebraska”

Ducks motor across the courtyard pond
at a girl’s approach, a paddling sprint
in hope of cabbage or a smidge of kale
shamelessly quacking that they’re underfed.

Behind a fringe of colonnade, the library
peers at this show through latticed windows.
The reference books exhale in disapproval:
their business truth, the ducks swindlers.

So this is the prison. Underpopulated.
You have three rooms in the east wing
to yourself. Maybe soon you’ll decide
to unbar the door, let yourself out.

The common rooms wait patiently:
library, dining nooks, tepidarium,
pantry, workshop, art studio, gymnasium,
the den where the oldest cat sleeps.

There are no guards, only a warden
who was once an inmate themself,
who knows that even in the best of worlds
some folks need a place to retreat.

You sit at your desk, contemplating
the menu slipped under your door:
sambusas – misir wat – omelet – toast –
you can’t choose, you aren’t ready.

Below, in the courtyard, a thrush flutes
its greeting to the evening breeze.
You set the menu aside, shut your eyes,
listen to the thrush as the dusk clots.

Headshot Mary Soon Lee outdoorsMary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association and a three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers’ Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest book is How to Navigate Our Universe, containing how-to astronomy poems. Website: marysoonlee.com.