Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
I remember as you stood bare feet
tiptoes on the red linoleum

reaching up to pull
the shade at dusk;

I left before the sun rose
you slept weeks

before realizing
there was no return.
You're a terrible person
You're a corrupt girl
You use men for the fun or the advantage
You terrorized my world
You left me hanging
You left me heartbroken
You were an angel once,
What happened?
We stand on the sidewalk
cousin Jamie and me, with

a bible in my right hand,
I drape my left arm

around her lopsided
shoulders and cold brace;

she seldom smiles,
even as the shutter clicks.
She is soap smooth from Achilles
to scalp’s apex

for years contemplated
suicide

instead, she learned
the right nutrients

creates life that bursts
above all

else.
Mustard & Mayonnaise sandwiches
Because nobody grocery shops in this place
After some time I learned to adapt
So it just became the new way

Oversleeping through breakfast
Lunch is noon and night
Mustard & Mayonnaise sandwiches
Because they satisfy my appetite

I begged my dad for turkey and Swiss
But he always managed to forget
And when friends asked "what do you got to eat"?
I'd say Mustard & Mayonnaise sandwiches

It's the little things we remember when we grow up
The dullest things can be so significant
They're a symbol of my childhood,
Those Mustard & Mayonnaise sandwiches
I wish all my writing  depicted gaggles
wedging south over mossy lakes.

They more often wander to  legs,
tangerine tongues, the taste

of sweat and smell of cheap hairspray;  
for thoughts like these, I feel no
                                          shame.
The wet smoldering scent
of burning dogwood
leaves

reminds me of the hours
spent in the garden
kissing

the soiled palms of
a woman tousled
from work.
Photograph an evening sunset
of a lake, wide and long,

one thousand times more
blue than the morning star,

and vulnerable, like a late
October Rose of Sharon

blossom, minutes before
fall’s first killing frost;

hold the picture close, as
it is your life, our lives.
Next page