Pamela Manasco
—
Intrusive Thoughts
It's progress, I think, that now when I talk about intrusive thoughts with my therapist, I don't ask what causes them. Would I try to trace around old, hardened orange peels to get the exact shape of the fingers who seeded the pith? Even better that I take her advice and after one has passed, I imagine the thought on a sheet of paper and mime crumpling it into the smallest possible ball. I toss it so smoothly into an invisible trash can I even hear the rattle against aluminum sides. I'm trying to be like the mom at soccer practice letting her older son wander the woods while the younger one drills kicks into the goal, who is truly delighted when the boy brings her a snakeskin he found in the pond, who keeps it safe for him when he goes to find another.
Pamela Manasco is a poet and English instructor at Alabama A&M University. She is the recipient of an Alabama State Council on the Arts poetry fellowship, and the 2024 Stephen Meats Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Rattle, SWWIM, Kitchen Table Review, The Midwest Quarterly, and elsewhere. She lives in Madison, Alabama with her family. You can find her on Instagram and Bluesky @pamelamanasco, and via her website: pamelamanasco.com
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