Mistakes Poem by Rae Armantrout

1

The subject will claim
that she has been taken
to the wrong place.

That the room
she is brought back to
is not the room she left.

That these comings and goings
are happening
to someone else,

are gathering momentum
controlled by a secret
mechanism.

That she needs to tell
someone.

2

I walk out the door
to the stone bench

without meaning to
(without meaning it?),

each step
jarring my frame

as it would anyone's