there’s a cliche at the center of this poem
and it/I feels great/fine
there’s a cliche at the center of this poem
because it’s the only way I can say how I really feel
there’s a cliche at the center of this poem
if only you’d stop and smell it
there’s a cliche at the center of this poem
and when you extract it—by hand—
it’ll be worth two
there’s a cliche at the center of this poem
it isn’t one with feathers
there’s a cliche at the center of this poem
turned enough in the end
for you to call familiar wise,
for you to praise oh praise the—
Elizabeth Kate Switaj and her formerly feral cats live on Majuro Atoll where she works at the College of the Marshall Islands. She is the author of one book of literary criticism (James Joyce’s Teaching Life and Methods, Palgrave, 2016) and two collections of poetry (Magdalene & the Mermaids, Paper Kite Press, 2009; The Bringers of Fruit: An Oratorio, 11:11 Press, 2022). She holds a PhD in English from Queen’s University Belfast and an MFA in Poetics and Creative Writing from New College of California.