Fourth Annual Wild Violet Writing Contest Winners (2006)

Poetry — Third Place

Matthew recieved his Bachelors Degree in English from Binghamton University, and has been published several times, including first place in Beginnings Magazine Summer 2001 poetry contest for the poem "Drama", and one of three honorable mentions in Circle Magazine's Summer 2004 poetry contest for the poem "The Swan".

"I Think He Needs a Shrink" She Said
By Matthew P. Requa

After I quit that winter due to stress, she spoke of me often

I worked with her my second summer there
middle-aged, militant child expert
barren and bitter over being a professional babysitter
with only a canine to rear
as the vicissitude of her fruits

I heard she was a lesbian (rumors flew like feathers there)
but her pageboy and rubber sandals lent credibility
— the children had imaginary friends
she had protective social illusions of
fabricated firefighters and matriarchal obligations

I was there to have fun
while she marched around grave and funeral faced
analyzing finger paintings and vomiting theories
on proper discipline and classroom conduct

Perhaps she was unnerved by my youth
or the children’s partiality toward me, or maybe
it was the train wreck of a personal life that seeped
from her pores like diary passages and manifested
in scowls and bitter, barked decrees
(and she called me moody?)

I remember the day our director,
(who had said she was a “real neat lady” )
publicly chewed her out for gossiping about co-workers
(though she gossiped about the kids too)
I could see the rage on her face during story hour
briskly flipping pages while she sat cross-legged,
her inappropriately short, hiking cargos exposing
sun damaged, dimpled thighs

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