family
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It’s the waiting that kills you. We should be thankful.This time they caught it early,as if a life sentence hasany other way of running out. We should be thankfulthat she fell in the showerthe crack of sudden vision loss in the steam,keep the chipped tile as a good luck charmsince they found the tumor again…
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When night falls, so does his mind.The walls open like stage curtainsto play a retinue of decades past.The day he skinned his kneeplaying baseball with his friends.The first time he heard her voiceon the operator line directing his call.The day they first met, her arrivingearly to the park with a friendstanding further away to scout…
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The static of his mindblew apart the EKG machine. I don’t know what languagefreedom, will be written in on his hospital release papers,or if they will ever be inked again. He was bouncing off the walls today,slamming pads, brick, doorways, and glass. Demons were in his bones, he saidhe was just trying to shake them…
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Old t-shirts in the closetholiday decorations in the attic.The only once used, then forgotten,waffle iron and matching crock potnext to the glassware collection. The smile in the photograph but not really a smile.More a wry chucklebehind the sunglasses without a sound. The echo of their voices is in the walls of the house,not quite real,…
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“What do you want to bebefore you’re retired?”The empty diaper box saidto the new microwave box,a much needed, albeit belated, wedding gift. “What do you mean?I thought we go straight to recycling,or that firepit I saw out backon my way in?”He replied perplexed, sides sleekin the kitchen light. The diaper box laughed,“Oh no sweetheart,There’s still…
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Not many people know this butwhen you first came outyou told your parents first.Not your birth parentsbut the ones who helped raise youwoke up at night to settle you downchanged your diaperstaught you how to ride a tricyclealbeit very badly (sorry for the concussion,a discussion for another time)you know, your other parentswho taught you the…
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This is a genre-bending poem that winds up being 5-6 minutes when read aloud or 5 pages printed. However, I think the payoff is worth it in the end. Originally from a prompt: “to describe what animal or plant you would be reborn as”. I asked if cryptids counted and they laughed and said yes……
Poetry With Hart 