You and I spilled
chemicals in the darkroom,
the wall gave us electric shocks.
1970’s hippie school: two
12-year-olds of opposite genders
with unsupervised lab access.
We poured stop bath into plastic tubs,
watched the images
bloom in black and white,
their buds opened wide.
Usually we handled chemicals
like responsible adults:
disposed of toxic waste
down the sink drain,
washed our hands afterwards.
One day, in a hurry,
we spilled tub after tub
onto the cement floor:
chemicals sloshed against
the dangling wires and
created a series of shocks
that reverberated through our bodies.
We did our best to clean up
before the teachers could find us
and revoke our darkroom privileges.
You and I made it back to class,
the teachers hadn’t even
noticed we were gone.
They gave us unlimited freedom
while they sat in the corner,
chain-smoked filtered cigarettes,
and told us never to start
or we’d end up just like them.
So I hope it wasn’t you, but
someone else with your name:
that young man on the internet
framed for murder, found
not guilty due to insanity,
confined to the state hospital;
exonerated 20 years later
on the basis of new evidence,
but Google doesn’t lie, and besides,
who else could it possibly be?
LEAH MUELLER is an indie writer and spoken word performer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of three chapbooks and five books. Her most recent book, Misguided Behavior, Tales of Poor Life Choices was published in September, 2019 by Czykmate Press. Her new chapbook, Death and Heartbreak (Weasel Press) is forthcoming in October, 2019. Leah’s work appears in Blunderbuss, The Spectacle, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.