Sample Poems by Erin Murphy

This Just In

The breaking news…
is there’s no breaking news.
No one died. There were no fires
or bribes or lies. No buildings
exploded or imploded. No one
voted. Nothing happened today.
It’s a disaster. Let us pray.

Offsprung

Your children don’t choose you.
They usually don’t want you
to die. They fall in love with
not needing you. They wear
dark glasses so they can study
the horizon when you think
they’re looking you in the eye.

Happiness

The history of happiness
is a lot like TV: no one is
seen thinking. Or watching
TV. Trash takes itself out.
We don’t vacuum, scrub
or dust. Under the rugs
we sweep all our doubts.

Distant Planet

It sounds like a city on a distant planet:
Glioblastoma. You think of it as an outpost
in the left parietal lobe, a place where aliens
infiltrate your brain. You’d share this idea
with your sci-fi-loving son, but the creatures
have seized your words. Next: your ability
to move. They have big plans. So did you.