Emergency

by Susan Terris

from Dream Fragments. . . .

The Blues—your ringtone—twice while I am sleeping but three notes only. Then from outside, my car alarm. Next, a pounding on the front door. Is that you, when you said you were in Barcelona? But the phone doesn’t ring again. No more alarm or pounding. Then your text: A crash but I’m okay. Go ahead with our plan. Plan, what plan? When I dial your number, no connection, just the crescendo of Ravel’s Boléro.


Susan Terris’ recent books are Take Two: Film Studies (Omnidawn), Memos (Omnidawn); and Ghost of Yesterday: New & Selected Poems (Marsh Hawk Press). Journals include The Southern Review, Georgia Review, Switched-On Gutenberg, and Ploughshares. A poem of hers appeared in Pushcart Prize XXXI. A poem from Memos was in Best American Poetry 2015. Ms. Terris is editor emerita of Spillway Magazine and a poetry editor at Pedestal.

Copyright 2018, Susan Terris


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