Refuse

Mom never thought
the house was clean enough.
Because it wasn't.

Dad collected newspapers
and paper scraps he might
need some day.

Piles of randomness
gathered in every corner of
every single room

waiting to be
sorted through or purged once
and for all.

She'd secretly thin
the stacks and toss the
abandoned items that

filled our garage
into the outside recycle bins
on trash day.

He'd rage when
he realized that things were
missing, even though

he couldn't tell
you what had disappeared or
how long ago.

Dad clung to
those scraps as if they
were long-held memories,

cherished moments stolen
right from his chubby hands,
clinging as tightly

as a child
holding their security blanket and
begging you to

let it go.



--

Poetic Bloomings Memoir Project: Part 3: Welcome Home

If I had a hammer ...

She was a fierce little girl
determined to tie her own shoes
and make her own way

"I can do it by myself,"
she'd declare, as if Mom and
Dad had nothing to offer

Stomping into the street in her
pink overalls, plastic hammer in hand,
ready to fix the world

--

Poetic Bloomings Memoir Project Part 2: Look what I did!

The last straw

Oh how I'd love to
save my teeth
from the cold clack of

ice cubes crashing against my
dental work. But
you took the last straw.


--

April PAD Day 25 - last straw

An eye for an eye

He closes his eyes and
tries to forget
all the times it was someone
else's eyes closed
forever in front of him


--

April PAD Day 30 - calling it a day

Fool's gold

Sometimes I see her
at the corner of
those deep brown eyes

in the flecks of
gold flashing like ore
in a miner's pan

beckoning you back into
the arms of a
love as cold and

dangerous as those High
Sierra rivers and as
fleeting as the boomtowns

left in the wake
of men's search for
their happily ever after

--

April PAD Day 27 - monster

The settlement

Before we settled
into our own corners
of the house

walking past each
other in the hallways
and politely chewing

our dinners at
the table each night
we filled this

place with so
much laughter that we
thought it might

just lift us
away from the lives
we have now


--

April PAD Day 28 - settled

The science of magic

Anyone who's seen
the universe unfold
beneath the lens
of a microscope
knows there is
magic all around


--

April PAD Day 29 - realistic or magical

Waterworks

I've never been one
to dip my toe
into the shallow end

I'd rather feel the
cool rush of slick
on skin as I

sink into a weightless
world buzzing in my
ears with quiet wonder

--

April PAD Day 26 - water

Longitude

I'm not sure
where I am
on the map

as if life
could ever be
navigated that way

the only latitude
I need is
to be freed

from my own
expectations of where
I ought to

be by now


--

April PAD Day 23 - location

Full glass

It's hard to see the
glass as half
full or empty when it's
filled with the
blood of those you've loved

--

April PAD Day 22 - optimistic or pessimistic