Poetry

May 31st, 2026

Ursula Charles

I’d Like to Pretend You Are a Nuisance to Me Now

I awoke to a disruption in my dream, 
like a giant bug was buzzing on my nightstand.
It took me a while to recognize it as real,
to roll over to the pest, prepared to do whatever I needed
to kill it. 

And then I saw your name, dimly lit on my dying phone.
And it was like reentering a memory,
with reflex kicking in.

You asked me to be your friend again,
I just really need a friend right now.
I swatted away your pleas and returned
to dreaming.

I awoke later to find the day already ruined
 with thoughts of you, helpless as a gnat,
flitting
through my head.

---

Ursula Charles writes from Ashland, Wisconsin. Their work has received the Barbara Bretting award for Fiction and Poetry and has been published in Great Lakes Review. Their writing is driven by the beautiful and messy stories that are everywhere life is, with themes of family, gender, justice and nature often arising. They see writing as a way to detangle these stories, in an attempt to make sense of the world, before going on to do the work of healing it.