Tonight's Poet Corner: Don't Be Stupid

Don't Be Stupid
by Belinda Roddie

Don't be stupid
climbing up the rope ladder
leading to the lighthouse
swirling watercolors into a foam
around your jawline. Don't try

calling for your mother to come over
with a bottle of aspirin, to cool
your hot nerves, bundled up like
frayed strings from the same scarf.
Don't be fooled into

thinking that someone's out there
to save you when you hear your ribs
screaming against the jagged knives
below, daggers icy with oceanic
wet dreams, trying to soothe you
with bubbles, calm you with froth,
end you with salt.