TWO POEMS

Elegy for the Boys at Shadowland Laser Tag

I had discovered this other world

within the world, inhabited only by boys

huddled in corners hugging plastic guns.

Everything was coated in phosphorescence.

I mimicked them so quickly, the boys,

learning to wear my glowing green heart

strapped, fearless, outside my chest.

I could walk with all my lives

through the center of it,

picking them off like duck hunt.

Lurking boys, ambushing boys,

ruthless, ill-intentioned boys—

they will grow to be feared by women,

but here they are only idle threats,

pointing lasers whole heads below me.

I loved being the person laughing

wickedly when I struck, strolling into the light

when it was over, swiping sweat

from my brow, sipping Coke,

elbows on the sticky table.

I killed them all, each and every boy.

More than once. I was the Goddess of Boy.

They followed me in a pack. Called me Hamburger.

I want to go back to those few hours

of living among not-yet-men.

Katy Day is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Sierra Nevada College. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Little Patuxent Review and Potomac Review, among other journals. In addition to writing poetry and micro prose, Katy’s script, “Playing Bo Peep,” was produced for young audiences at Andy’s Summer Playhouse in 2016.