Elizabeth O'Brien — Josephine Quarterly

Therese Dreaming

Elizabeth O’Brien

I
want
undivided attention
not chainlink fence or shadow
no childhood
memory—
of this

or
milk- gulls in the schoolyard
blue faces peering

they say I’m in it
but but do they
mean

I worry
too much

Elizabeth O’Brien writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New England Review, Diagram, Sixth Finch, NewPages, Carve, Whiskey Island, decomP, PANK, Carve, Swink, Versal, Juked, A capella Zoo, The Leveler, Slice, The Emerson Review, Flashquake, The Found Poetry Review, Glide Magazine, and other journals. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, and can be found online at elizabethobrien.net.