Jeremy Byars

Perception

Because she’d single out my best
traits and laugh at my worst tics,
rearranging knick-knacks on my desk
to watch me shuffle each book or pen
back to predetermined spaces–

Because it didn’t take a year
for her to catch me in a lie,
unfasten the windswept coffer where
emotions blur and age, away
from liberation’s blinding light–

Because she never knew my father
and yet she saw his rage building
in me and spat in its legacy–

I knew she had me figured out
and understood me better than
I understood myself.

Author Bio

Jeremy Byars first poetry collection, Eyes Open to the Flash, was published in 2008, and he’s currently working on his next collection,
as well as an annotated bibliography of the Towneley plays. His poems and reviews have appeared in many journals, most recently
storySouth, Ariel, If Poetry Journal, and Heartland Review.