Debt Collector
M. Terry Bowman
Of all the things you could collect.
Why couldn’t they have been coins,
autographs, or butterflies?
The monies of a nation,
the curlicue of a celebrity’s mark,
or an iridescent winged insect
satiates the needs of others.
My currency was affection.
I could write the alphabet
with my fingertip on your skin
and then spread my wings again.
Until I realized that collecting stamps
in your passport wasn’t so special
compared to notches in your bedpost
from your world travels.
Of all the things you could collect.
__________________________________________
M. Terry Bowman is an occupational therapist with a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her first book of poetry, “Thanks for the Mammary,” was published by Quaci Press in 2014. She can always be found at mterrybowman.com.
__________
Photo above by: Craig Brunetti, Stephen Paddock, Sean Carroll —This is the imaginal disc of a developing wing of African butterfly Bicyclus Anynana created by UW-Madison researchers during the course of their work.