Louise Mathias

Hello Panic My Old Friend

Now a stranger
strokes my hair. Depraved

the swarm
of monarchs
in my chest—(anything en masse

is also terror.)

Ambulance man
has eyes like yours,

two ponds that kept
the mare alive

except for that one summer.

Louise Mathias is the author of two books of poems, Lark Apprentice (New Issues Press) and The Traps (Four Way Books). She lives in Joshua Tree, California.