IT WAS A TEST WAS WHAT THEY TOLD US

We all sat around in the room-sized room.
It was a test. That's what they told us.
Perhaps the sitting was part of it.
And perhaps we were waiting for it to begin.
The guy to the right of me had only one eye.
I told him I wish I didn't have two.
The woman who shut us in was as lovely as dawn.
She had those breasts that make men swine.
After about an hour Jeff said maybe we should do something.
We asked Jeff to sit down and shut up.
After twenty-four hours a few of us were hungry.
After a week there was not much to say.
A year or so later the ones who remained were still smiling.
I didn't really want to belong. I said that for a while.
Then I stopped talking. Just in case the test, you know, had started.

--Corey Mesler