Lindsey Schaffer
Lindsey Schaffer is the author of City of Contradiction (Selcouth Station) and Witch City (dancing girl press, forthcoming). Her work has appeared in the Eunoia Review, Reservoir Road Literary Review, and elsewhere. Lindsey has received scholarships and fellowships from the Indiana Writers Workshop, AWP, the City of Bloomington, and the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. She serves as a poetry editor for Variant Literature.
The man walks up to the open mic for his 5 minute slot, declares
he will need at least 10. Proceeds to talk about snowflakes
and how they are white- like snowflakes. It reminds me of a TED
talk that introduced the concept of noise pollution. How one
plane over a forest could disrupt an entire ecosystem. From intercepting frog
mating calls to scaring babies who run away from their mothers.
The man's voice is inescapable, filling the bookstore, immobilizing those
of us who claimed seats in the front row. I think back
to long car rides with my parents. Being told I did so well because
I stayed silent. As the man drones on I consider what it means
to take up space and why I feel ashamed to do it. When he
finishes a boy takes the mic, declares he has three poems to
share. It is a prose reading. In the back of my head my
father chides: girls talk too much, shhh.