Jennifer (Eisenhauer) Richardson

COGNITION

Listen to the audio version read by Melissa Cotter.

The words on the page dissolve,
sugar on the spoon
that swirls in a cup
of writing started and then
never finished.

Ideas evaporate
and I try to catch them,
birds scratching at the edge
of a dry bath fly and disappear
into the horizon as I ask
you to repeat the question.

When I watch a movie,
psychosis is dramatic,
all murderous voices and paranoia,
and my criticism roars,
but today I just wish
I could remember
the names of films.

Jennifer (Eisenhauer) Richardson is an Associate Professor in Arts Administration, Education, and Policy and an affiliated faculty member with the Disability Studies Program at The Ohio State University. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Disability Studies Quarterly, Wordgathering, Breath and Shadow, Rogue Agent, Connotations Press, and Visual Culture and Gender. Her 2013 essay appearing in South Loop Review was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her academic writing, appearing in multiple journals, focuses on representations of mental disability.