A wind ran right over me and climbed through a window,
says Rock. No more windows for me. I’m retired.
In peacetime, I can be someone’s pet.
They brushed their battle plans off me, says Paper,
and wrote a treaty on that clean slate.
Fold me into an airplane. I feel so free.
From now on, I will cut only ribbons,
says Scissors. The war, unlike me,
never did have a point.
I know a person who lost everything he once loved
His family, his love, his name, his dreams
And yet, he still bears the weight of it all with a bright smile
A knowing smile
I also know a woman who has lost nothing of the sort
And she spits on him, passing judgement as if she holds the key to life’s secrets
Her venomous words sizzle in my stomach, burning my heart like acid
How can it be true?
How can she be righteous and he be condemned?
How can I know nothing and they know God’s will?
My community is built on love, respect
Hers? On shifting sand
My mother’s bitterness will be her damnation
Dear god,
peace to
the birds
singing in
the mornin-
g where
the
dew
on the
grass
sways.
Amen
With an undercurrent whiff of cowshit,
the milking house smelled like sweet grass
and bleach–Memaw, my earliest memories
are of you at work. The milk swirling beige
in a cistern–cow’s tongues leech like rope.
In one man’s house, I remember turning
a rainstick in my hands, over and over.
I remember the woman who flooded night
with all the searchlights–her ghosts rancled.
Those were the second years of caregiving: us kids,
old folks, my sick papaw, your aunt and mom.
I wish I could afford you the care you gave.
Maybe now, we both have our own ghosts
in our heads–different ghosts as distance
has moved us from each other.
But in the letterbox of my heart, a note etched
in bologna scraps and red pantsuit,
in bluegrass dancing and holy rolling,
in coffee creamer and in the wind-on-chime
under the spread of trees–in the farm
a half forgotten memory, a rue
of green around us, it spells out “G–.”
to do’s
all good I get to
but it’s Saturday I’m
taking a day off.
If I were to end today
for good
there would no longer either be
this list 🙂
I was in a dark forest hiding behind a tree
as I breathed so frantically, I wondered if you would ever stop chasing me
it was cold and so foggy I could barely see
while the wind began carrying on with an eerie tune of whistling
you knew I had no idea and was amused at the way I was listening
I sensed you could feel the vibrations of my shivering and I realized I was coming closer instead of distancing
He asked me who was the new flavor of the month?
I admonished him, don’t let her hear you say that!
She ‘ll never bring them round for inspection.
We had to be coy to the decoy, if we gushed
or liked the boy, he was gone in a flash.
We learned the rules of this game early on.
For the last flavor, when asked what I thought
I answered, What do you think?
We treaded lightly so this one stayed
not melting like an ice cream
cone on the sidewalk.
I held a date, soon to come,
before my heart’s release–
I counted every minute then,
until I found relief
Before my eyes, a vision was,
of all that we had been–
and dreams of what may have come,
banished by my sin
I found in every moment,
a dread that filled the edge–
a knowing that the end had come,
dragging, on broken leg
I held a date, soon to come–
new morning would be made,
and knowing I would see no dawn,
my last chance, to fade
