Archive for Relationships

1. BED OF TEARS • by Amy Corbin 19 Comments

    
   I had always been afraid of what giving me “something 
   to cry about” would feel like.  Like soap wedged between  
   clenched teeth wasn’t a good enough reason.  Reason could  
   have been his belt.  Belt thrashing my scrawny legs.  
    
   It was true what he’d said about pain. Pain was seeing
   that note on the door “evicted”.  Evicted [...]

   Other, Relationships
   
   

2. MEMORIAL • by James Graham 17 Comments

   The stone is ready. In memory of
   our beloved daughter – we accepted
   the mason’s English lesson, to omit
   ‘loving’ before ‘memory’, or else
   ‘beloved’ before ‘daughter’.The last
   of many declarations of this love.
   Enough. These are all the words
   the stone will say.
   I have crossed the waste land, almost all the way.
   I have stumbled over dead boughs utterly dry of sap, [...]

   Other, Relationships
   
   

3. SATURN ON MY SOLE • by Richard M. O’Donnell 7 Comments

   I wake to see Saturn on my sole
   a child’s glow-in-the-dark sticker
   stuck to the bottom of my shoe
   radiating from the bedroom floor
   like the moon to the earth
   reminding me of the infinity of space.
   I close my eyes.
   Outside
   a billion constellations swirl in an emptiness
   beyond my comprehension
   but I’m grounded
   by my daughter’s penny sticker
   stuck to the bottom of my soul.
   Richard [...]

   Inspirational, Relationships
   
   

4. THE DANCE OF THE SUN AND THE MOON • by dj barber 12 Comments

    
   That moment,
   between Sunday’s rest,
   Monday’s grind.
    
   Third game broadcasted now complete,
   he yawns, shaking his head as he exits the den,
   his office pool 8-6.
    
   Marathon of lust and betrayal concludes, Lifetime’s best,
   she sighs, wishing for the excitement other lives lead,
   but too afraid to return that bearded smile at work.
    
   Moondance at midnight,
   back-to-back,
   not quite touching.
    
   That moment
   between Sunday’s rest,
   Monday’s [...]

   Literary, Relationships
   
   

5. TOP-HEAVY • by Richard M. O’Donnell 5 Comments

   Tan sandals
   white socks
   long, pale legs
   disappear into Daisy Dukes
   but Ohio springs are deceptive
   morning promises summer
   noon delivers winter
   forcing the naive co-ed
   crossing against the light
   to bundle back into her parka
   creating a top-heavy costume
   so disproportionate to the season
   I want to shout, “Put your pants on!”
   Not for modesty sake
   but because I know
   like any father knows
   she’s cold.
   Richard M. O’Donnell’s works have [...]

   Literary, Relationships
   
   

6. THE ALLIGATOR XYLOPHONE • by Lucien E. G. Spelman 18 Comments

   My son tows the
   plastic alligator xylophone behind.
   He is everything that I want to be;
   risible, willful, daring.
   Full of woodnotes.
   Free of skepsis.
   True.
   He is laying a trail for me to follow.
   My impatience of his tiny steps
   reveals me to me.
   I am hardly yet who I want to be;
   worrying, wrinkled, naff.
   Full of scorn.
   Free of romp.
   True.
   I am laying a trail for [...]

   Other, Relationships
   
   

7. GRACE UNEXPECTED • by Tyrean Martinson 11 Comments

   Struggling to keep
   my head up out
   of the mire of
   discontent and
   frustrated angry words,
   I hide from my
   seven year-old
   daughter who uses
   words like weapons.
   I know where she
   learned to do that.
   It shames me.
   So I hide
   In my room
   Hoping for some
   Reprieve,
   some grace
   From God, so I don’t
   say the wrong thing.
   I ask for mercy,
   Wisdom or just
   an escape for
   a moment.
   There is silence.
   So I return
   To find [...]

   Inspirational, Relationships
   
   

8. THICKLY WITH ME • by Catherine Langford 13 Comments

   Do you know I think about leaving you and
   what it is that I leave?
   It is this: your thick outside scent that cloys in my throat,
   those rough woollen jumpers, unwashed, so full of you.
   Battered jeans, torn and oil stained
   always too long, worn to an arch at each heel.
   Gumboots, green-soled, brand new, no leaks.
   Greying stubble that makes [...]

   Other, Poems, Relationships
   
   

9. THE BLUE OF MY EYE • by Amanda Fall 17 Comments

   It’s not your death that stuns me, Grandma, not after your
   slow fade from warrior who high-kicked grasshoppers
   to shrinking woman, restless legs tangled in sheets,
   trapped on the mattress, your final home.
   I knew the time would come, the phone would ring. I even
   dreamed of you, a few days before: that I lay sleeping on
   the golf course — [...]

   Other, Relationships
   
   

10. SHE SAID • by Sharon L. Shannon 10 Comments

     
    You cannot draw my pictures for me,
          she said
    by the confident way she entered the room,
    in her refusal to look at the floor
    so close to her eyes.
    You cannot decide who I must be,
          she emphasized
    by crossing her legs and spreading bags and books
    across the table as if she owned the place;
    the casual way she sipped her chai
    without [...]

    Other, Relationships
    
    

« Previous Entries