My cat is losing her hair
She grabs mouthfuls and pulls
sings a feline phonics
only she can teach
with bared comma claws
that get stuck on pause
like that day under my desk
after the review came in
and it said I had a problem
with authority and all I could see
was pilled carpet and lint balls and periods
All I could hear was steps
outside my closed door
fluorescent light sliding through
to notches on an empty highway
air brakes just around the corner
Dora Rollins teaches creative writing in the Tucson, Arizona, state prison where her students are also writing colleagues. She serves as an Associate Editor for the 50-year-old incarceration-focused Rain Shadow Review literary magazine. She has been published in Wordpeace, the Corvus Review, Right Hand Pointing, Borrowed Solace, and Iron City Magazine.