karla keffer
In whatever time is left,
I wish for you soft, warm things,
cats, pillows, sweet potatoes.
May you sleep through the night
without having to pee; may a herd
of goats magically appear, mow
your lawn, and make you laugh.
May the New York Times crossword
lack those twee clues that end
in a question mark. May you live
long enough to see me called Doctor,
but not so long that Seinfeld no longer
makes sense. And when the time is ripe
to return to your home planet,
may you be able to look back
at us on Earth and witness a happier
ending than you were led to expect.
***
Karla Keffer is in her third year of a Ph.D. program in creative writing/fiction at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her poems and fiction have been published in Smartish Pace, Moon City Review, and Rappahanock Review. She is also the creator of the perzine The Real Ramona and the forthcoming semiautobiographical comic Charm City. Karla lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.