Corrected Version*: Bed

By Kerrin McCadden

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In the country of Bed,
I am unemployed,
a hobbyist. Mornings,
various alarms go off
that mean nothing to me.
There goes more time.
There goes another election
of who should get up.
Glad I lost again.
I wander from border
to border slowly,
a slow-motion octopus,
a getaway car out of gas.
Off to the south, somewhere,
there is water, and farther
away, I hear there are others
— right here, though,
an extraordinary number
of threads to count!
Not a bad idea to chronicle things
in this remarkable land
where the laws are simple
—go nowhere, hurt no one.
My neighbor from the other side
of the bed will be back soon.
He is friendly and kind.

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Kerrin McCadden is the author of two poetry collections and a chapbook, American Wake (finalist for the New England Book Award and the Vermont Book Award), Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes (winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize and the Vermont Book Award), and Keep This to Yourself (winner of the Button Poetry Prize). She lives in South Burlington, Vermont.

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