Robin Turner

question an old notebook of poems

All but the page number, 174, and fifteen of the words on an old cream-colored book page have been obscured by white liquid paper correction tape. Near the center of the page, adjacent to the word “p o e m s” is an illustration of a large black bird in flight with broad black and white wings. It is affixed to a spot on the page that has been entirely whited out.

The words that remain unobscured read:

question
an old notebook
of
p o e m s

“Where does this stairway lead?”

poke
the crack
ing
violin — Source text: The Hidden Staircase, from the old Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series, circa 1959, Grosset & Dunlap.

Robin Turner makes poems and poem-like things in Dallas. Her chapbooks: bindweed & crow poison (Porkbelly Press) and Elegy with Clouds & (Kelsay Books). Recent work appears in Anacapa Review, Unlost, and Pithead Chapel. She is a teaching artist currently working with writers from the Cancer Support Community of North Texas.