“Adult Night Terrors”

They called it an efficiency

apartment with  just one room, one

short trundle bed/couch (so fun

for us, still newlyweds, could be

enjoyed, but rather awkwardly.)

…

My young wife held me by the wrist,

the torn sheet in my hands. I’d dreamed

I’d fought the foreman, kicked and screamed:

his torture made me use my fist–

a warrior from a pacifist!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, January 8, 2013