Agoraphobia by Susan Hahn

It isn’t that she doesn’t
want to go to the marketplace, if only
to buy one small
compliment. She can remember each
time she went,
got one, took it
home, put it in
a porcelain cup she kept
beside her bed.
She stopped
going out for fear

of wanting too much to fill
the fragile container,
decorated her house in muted
stripes
and moved onto her bed
a color TV

which she watches
steadily.
She likes the news, especially
the accidents that happen
when people travel too far
from home.
They secure her place.
And when she faces
a scene filled with a good
time, she wanders—
but only in her mind.

From: Hahn, Susan, “Agoraphobia” in Poetry, Volume 144, Issue 3, June 1984, p. 136.
(https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=144&issue=3&page=16)

Date: 1984

By: Susan Hahn (1951- )

Tags: 1984, agoraphobia, it isn’t that she doesn’t, poetry, susan hahn