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I Felt Bad

By Ed Bok Lee
Poetry•Vol. XXVIII No. 3 (Winter 2015)

and so apologized to the fly I smashed on Thursday, then flushed its toilet grave.

 

But it had no interest in the cold window I’d opened for it to leave.

 

I apologized to the fly I crushed on Friday.

 

My apartment is quiet and that fly was crazed.

 

I felt strange apologizing to the fly I killed on Saturday. 

 

That fly kept landing on my face and waking me.

 

I felt dishonest apologizing to the fly I killed on Sunday afternoon.

 

Resentment tainted my apology to a second fly I killed that same Sunday evening.

 

I felt nothing for the fly I killed on Monday.

 

Still, I apologized afterward, numbly.

 

To my surprise, that one actually forgave me.

Ed Bok Lee
Ed Bok Lee is the author of Whorled (Coffee House Press 2011), winner of an American Book Award, and Real Karaoke People (New Rivers Press 2005), winner of a PEN/Open Book Award.

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