Who Wants You Broken?
What do abusers do?They break their victims. Why?Because intact humans have too much power.They fight back. They walk away. Who wants you broken?Stop complying.
Alphabetical by Author
Some days I findone of my mistakesthere on a shelf,standing tall. A title and a nameremind me ofwhere I’ve beenand longed to go;what I may have needed,thought I wanted;who I tried to be.
Heliocentric
Laughing at Icarus as you watched him fall,you built your fortress: a heavy investment in happiness.Imagining a life of light suffusing the courtyard,you made the walls high and covered the ground with mirrors. But the sun will not be told…
Autry’s Humility
It was love and it was desperation.It was need and pure charity. It wasn’t perfect. Only God is. But it was enough to save a life. Thank you, Reynolds Price, for writing “Endless Mountains.” Thank you, Mom, Dad, God? Whoever…
Where Meaning LIVES
We spend minutes, days, years,as if we are keeping score. Did you read the book,ace the test,.graduate? Who lives longest?Who keeps it together until...death do us part? How long until the nest is empty,the career is history,what you’ve sown is…
Unacknowledged Does Not Equal Nonexistent
Our past is strewn with clues: some are as subtle as a phrase, habitually repeated without thought, while others are as obvious as a dead body. Which symbols, which images do we use over and over, perhaps without understanding why?…
Tear It Out
A poem from way back in June, 2016 Billy’s life of quiet desperationnever before concerned you,so why pretend to care now? I stepped in to fill the void you leftwhen you snuck away with Ted,taking with you all Billy held…
Answer Me This
—A; —42; —3 hours; —the blue one; —true; —false We are assured the correct answers will get us through liferelatively unscathed. But where is that third-grade teacherwhen the doctor says it’s cancer? Is “A” really the right response when your…
A Team Sport
Ideas about greatnessraise a racket andspin over the netlike a fuzzy green ball. Your serve.My return.Charge the net.Mind the baseline.Run. Hit. Win. Or lose. Just a game against a friendly opponent? Turns out I was trying to beat myself—in league…
A Story Told from Sanborn to Zusak
(Bookcase Inspiration) Fools Crow about how they’re Educated, and it’swithin The Art of Possibility, but I wonder ifthey’ve merely been indoctrinated at The Devil’s Pleasure Palace.Might we be dealing with A Confederacy of Dunces, whosuspend Rules of Civility and build…
Knock and It Shall be Opened to You
I wrote this poem back in 2016, but I find new meaning in it now. If I could enter your office,if the door were unlocked,if you’d let me in,I would stand in a cornerand watch you work. If the door…
Alcatraz
His island turns out to beinhabited by people I’d come to know.But where is he now?Buried beneath it?Or still versifying:Stringing stones and weaving words?What does he do with them now?Are they carefully foldedand tucked behind a light-switch plate? No, probably…
