Critics

When I was a child I had to take piano lessons.
The piano teacher had a big dog.
One day the piano teacher’s dog
broke free of his chains and attacked me.
I was horrified: crying, bleeding, bruised
Then the piano teacher told me
I was overreacting which made me cry more,
to which she responded,
that I was a better actress than pianist
Now, years later, I wonder if her dog
hated my playing too.

 

The Numbers

He said he was a math teacher
who liked to tutor after school.
In reality, he was neither
He just liked touching little girls
who grew up hating math and failing math tests
And were for years haunted in their sleep
by complex mathematcal equations.
Back then, everyone thought that girls
just hated math by nature.

 

Janet Cormier is a painter, writes prose and poetry, and performs comedy. JC prefers different and original over pretty. She loves collecting stuff, but cleaning not so much. Janet also talks to strangers… a lot. Her column now appears weekly on Oddball Magazine.