“Instructions for Going Unnoticed” by Jennifer Moore
12/14/17
The poem “Instructions for Going Unnoticed” appears in the poetry collection The Veronica Maneuver by Jennifer Moore, published by The University of Akron Press. Visit uakron.edu/uapress to order a copy of Moore’s book and browse other Akron Series in Poetry books.
Instructions for Going Unnoticed
To disappear, become water. From the faucet
spill out to the sea, then ride in the wake of the whale
’til the ocean is your body and you are the ocean’s.
But if evaporation is what you want, pour yourself
from kettle to cup; be sugar and dissolve. Make
saccharine your song and sing it softly. To flee
the observing ear, slip through a needle
and fold quietly into the cabbage rose, unseen
and unsung in a green bed. Be sure to call
yourself infant, meaning unable to speak,
and as a way of becoming wallflower, paper
your body in paisley and love the corner
that loves you back. Go un-photographed
into the night. Muzzle anything that glows.
Jennifer Moore is the author of the chapbook What the Spigot Said (High5 Press). Poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Best New Poets, B O D Y, Columbia Poetry Review, and elsewhere. A native of the Seattle area, Jennifer is an assistant professor of poetry at Ohio Northern University, where she teaches courses in creative writing, literature, and composition. Currently, she lives in Bowling Green, Ohio.
(Cover image of The Veronica Maneuver courtesy of The University of Akron Press and Amy Freels. Featured photo courtesy of The University of Akron Press)
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