The Only Thing Standing Between Fantasia and Nothingness

It could’ve been me.
I would have been brave
and read a book valiantly.

I could have saved the realm
or at least hidden from bullies in a library,
gotten dumped into a dumpster.

I could have saved the princess.
Though, to be honest—
there’s a good chance

I would have stayed there with Artax
in the mud—the non-newtonian gunk
drawing muscle strength with each movement.

Widowhood effect not limited
to long-time spouses—for a few years there
I teetered on the edge of Broken Heart Syndrome

for every empty robin’s nest.

Zebulon Huset is a teacher, writer and photographer. He won the Gulf Stream 2020 Summer Poetry Contest and his writing has appeared in Best New Poets, Rattle, Meridian, North American Review, New York Quarterly, The Southern Review, Fence and many others. He publishes the prompt blog Notebooking Daily, and edits the journal Coastal Shelf.