You might fancy yourself unpredictable,
but before this game, at brunch with friends,
we predicted some man will definitely have
a problem with me reading a book in the stands.
Our friends asked why and we said, Not sure,
but please count on it, a man will comment.
And hey man, you did! You’re right, I don’t know
the score. I barely know who’s playing!
My husband has already read this book.
He glances at my page and says, Ooh, just wait.
Sometimes he nudges me so I’ll catch a good play.
Meanwhile your wife sits quietly beside you.
Melissa Fite Johnson is the author of three full-length collections, most recently Midlife Abecedarian (Riot in Your Throat, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Pleiades, HAD, Whale Road Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Melissa teaches high school English in Lawrence, KS, where she and her husband live with their dogs. One of her all-time favorite HAD pieces is Donna Vorreyer’s poem “At the End of a Difficult Week Full of Bad News, I Speak to My Son.” Melissa loves HAD very much and is really proud that this is her fifth skull.
