“‘18’x‘24’ lady veronica” by Charly Clerge

Voice from Niflheim
by Kenneth Pobo

In July, mist thickens. A stranger speaks,
offers no name, says she’s from Niflheim.
We expect to see flames dripping
off her. She’s in hell,

after all. Instead, she tells us of her husband
who loathed women yet fucked
so many. Marriage and slavery,
she couldn’t tell us the difference.

She fed him, kept the home clean.
He beat her. Savagely. As many men
did to their wives. Since she knew
he thought she was less than a rock,
she bludgeoned him with one
while he drowsed off his wine. She laughs,

says she never sees the man she killed,
even in dreams. Niflheim,

even when her bones feel like frozen stalks
and snow an ivory-handled knife,
is more joy than she ever imagined.

Read Kenneth Pobo’s online chapbook, “Crazy Cakes,” at http://scars.tv. His new book, “Glass Garden,” is available at Amazon.com.