Charley

Donna Freeman

September 7, 2022

“I call him Charley, she said, squirming in the seat next to me.

He’s my brain that doesn’t want me to read.

He dances, he’s never still, he somersaults and talks out loud.

Sometimes I tell him to be quiet

…but he never is

unless he’s napping.

Then I feel like clapping…. just to be a bother.

My toes join with him, squiggle along

unless they are in flip flops

which they love

… and I do too!

Then they slide and glide

front and back.  Just like that!”

She shared a grin, rolled her eyes, 

sprung up and skipped through the room.

“That’s why I don’t read,” she confessed,

“and get mad at Charlie so much

because I really want to.

If only he was quiet

I’d be patient and

he would leave me alone, 

see that book’s page open.

all those children in the picture,

they’d smile at me

and my teacher, she’d smile too,

say, Look at you, Suzy Boo,

You can read!

You! Yes you!

But Charlie’s up he’d shout

No mam, she’s not reading no book.

She’s doing a daydream. Just look!

Then my teacher, she’ll frown

see Charlie there

and stare me down.

I know it!”

Suzy wiggles close to me.

Now she smiles, shrugs her shoulders,

“That’s my brain, my only one,

“What do they want from me? I can’t help it. 

That’s him again.

That’s not me.

That’s silly Charlie!”

Donna Freeman’s poetry has appeared in Wilderness House Literary Review, Blue Lake Review, and appears in Ocean State Poets Anthology: Giving Voice. In 2020 a poem of Donna's was selected for RI Public's Radio "Virtual Gallery.” She enjoys writing on both personal and political matters.