"My Nemesis" by Sara Cosgrove

My Nemesis

is a magnificent dancer. She performs pirouettes to the bar and passes after her first attempt so

she can later explain the legalities of torture. This ornery oracle scans rooms and documents from

left to right and right to left. She speaks every language but my native language.

And practicing my second language will not save me from the horrors accompanying

her swift gait and savvy social behaviors. My nemesis wears combat boots and moonlights as a

flight attendant with a 500-year-old samurai sword hidden in the cockpit, headed for

my destination. She is the reason dead sparrows appear on my doorstep, my car won’t start, and I swallow five pills every night to help me fall asleep.

Sara Cosgrove is an award-winning journalist and emerging poet. Her poems have appeared or are scheduled to appear in The Seventh Quarry, Meniscus, and Notre Dame Review. She has worked as a writer and editor for more than a decade and has studied in the United States, Cuba, and France.