Robert Fillman

Robert Fillman is the author of House Bird (Terrapin, 2022). His poems have appeared in The Hollins Critic, Poetry East, Salamander, Spoon River Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and others. His criticism has appeared in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, The College Language Association Journal, and elsewhere. His chapbook, November Weather Spell, was published by Main Street Rag Publishing in 2019. He teaches at Kutztown University.

ON THE TIME I GOT MYSELF PINNED BENEATH OUR TV

What I remember is the weight, the warmth
of the plastic held tight in my arms, how
the glass felt smooth against my skin, the light
of the screen still flashing cartoons as I
labored to breathe beneath our forty-inch
Magnavox TV, the strain on my chest,
my family’s laughter from the kitchen
over the single front speaker’s low hush
of volume, the fear they wouldn’t find me
in time, that I’d be punished if they did,
the tingling in my limbs when Mom and Dad
finally lifted the set off me, how
I was too embarrassed to tell them what
I’d been after all along was a hug.

INTIMATES