The Leopard Tells of his Spots

I want to
rewind
the magenta clock
and look for
the marble moments
of my blue paper past
fold
its hairier corners
into new-fangled shapes
to loosen
the origami archways
of that carefully wrought
history

Instead,
I sit on the green stool
and watch the red plant
grow
on the kitchen shelf.

Mary Lannon has work published at Story, New World Writing, and her short story "The Key to Catastrophe Management" was a finalist for the 2019 Iron Horse Literary Review Trifecta Contest for the long short story.  A resident of Queens NY, she is at work on a second novel and a book of poems, while looking for a publishing home for her first novel.