National Poetry Month : Michael Dennis,

I didn’t fire anyone but I don’t want her to come back

I took the cowards way out when I let her go

we had a woman who would come and clean our house

when she phoned today I told her not to come here anymore

I told her that we were going to clean our own house

but what I didn’t say

was that I was angry

when she drank my wife’s

after work cache of cider

both cans

and she, the cleaning woman, left early, as usual

without washing the stove top

without cleaning the kitchen floor

I’d been thinking our liquor supply was dwindling

but I’d put it down to drunken mice

and bad memory

but not a drop has gone missing

since last she was here

Michael Dennis [photo credit: John W. MacDonald] is a poet from Ottawa, Ontario. He has published seven books of poetry and nearly twenty chapbooks, and has been widely published in Canadian literary magazines and journals. His latest title is a selected poems, Bad Engine (Anvil), edited by Stuart Ross. For the last three years Dennis has been the labour behind “Today’s book of poetry” a regular blog where Dennis talks about books of poetry he likes. Dennis has posted over 450 blogs/reviews of Canadian and American small press poetry. These days he can be found in Vanier, keeping his laneway clean.