4X2
an online poetry journal
Photo by Melissa Hotchkiss
Perception
by Heather Newman
She found a job and hunkered down that winter, though
he had taken off to shoot volcanoes in Bora Bora.
She knew it signaled an exit strategy but signed on as
an underpaid assistant to a misogynist in a
windowless office. We say we pay for our fathers’
sins, meaning she paid off her husband’s cell phone bill
with more unknown callers. In one version of truth,
the female rabbit pulls out her fur to add to the nest
as Daphne, now a tree, thanks Apollo for cutting her branches.
Poet's Statement: "Perception" evolved from a poetry prompt to find lines and write their opposites. Experimenting with literal and figurative meanings led me to think about truth as a perception, as a means to seize and understand. Predators and prey in all species act out of their own versions of truth. They all create survival mechanisms.
Bio: Heather Newman's work is forthcoming in Hanging Loose #111, and has appeared in Right Hand Pointing, The Inquisitive Eater, Voices From Here, Vol. II (Paulinskill Poetry Project anthology) and more. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in 2019, is a member of the South Mountain Poets, and teaches at The Writers Circle in NJ.