Duct Tape Poem

Katie Daley

“As police patroling the US Capitol began carrying semi-automatic
rifles, and the government warned key industries to watch for employees
who might have been planted by terrorist groups, Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld had a warning: ‘We’ve entered what may very well prove to
be the most dangerous security environment the world’s known.”

There is always
in America
something you can buy
that will save you —
anti-depressants, gas masks
a new pair of shoes

This week
it’s duct tape

I don’t want duct tape
I just want somebody to hold me

But the phones’re all dead
drugstores empty
mailman’s disappeared
along with my government
to a secure, undisclosed location

And I’m all alone with
the gumwrapper glint
in my news anchorman’s eyes
the hair grease in his talk
his rapturous updates
on how to survive a terrorist attack
with a roll of duct tape and sheet of plastic

Hello? Is anybody home?
I really just want someone to hold me

But all I can conjure tonight
is the silver roll of tape in the toolbox
the real here and now feel
of tight and sticky
up against my naked and lonely
I am deep in fantasy 
wrapping my shoulders and breasts
with hot diggety disco glue
and don’t-let-me-go, unconditional
baby-I’ll-see-you-through conduction

Wrap me up, baby duct, wrap me up 
my arms, my hands and feet
make it so I can’t run away from any of this
then just hold me
please, please
hold me