Category: Poetry
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Who threw the cheese?
Kids and Their Secrets The errant slice of American cheese that ended up on the bathroom floor has baffled all investigators for more than fifty years. Its softened edges, missing corner, and sweaty surface reside far back in my brain’s mystery album. Not a single one of us four kids admitted to tossing it beside…
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Call me
A poem about becoming Mastermind, I once was tagged in my introverted days. Arranging, calculating, quietly driven. Then Field Marshal, planning, executing, holding the torch, urging my battalion into victory. Often Fixer, eager to improve any situation, to declaw a beast, and watch it smile. Sometimes Seven, grabbing every random chance for growth to enjoy…
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Forgiveness
Why are you pounding at my door again? I answered once, accepted your offer, and sent you away, satisfied that you wouldn’t return. But here you are again. This time pounding at my heart louder, more insistent. I don’t want to answer. I’ve hidden from your face too long. Go away! Leave me with my…
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Knowing
Heavy, heavy heart shoving me downward, pushing me into cold darkness, alone. I am trapped, confined, pinned under a weight I can never lift. The bitter knowledge engulfs, seeps into my broken spirit, forces surrender. My eyes spill their tears, my lips both quiver. I cannot stop. I grieve for your loss … and for…
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Fall Creek prayer
Oh, wind, I hear you rustle the reddening leaves outside the open doorway. Breathe your resurrection into my aching heart that pines for solace; your peace into my unsettled soul.
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Election Day eve
By Barbara Swander Miller I can’t sleep. I turn, wriggle, twist and sigh. Too much news coverage I suppose. Not that they’re reporting anything new, really. Why can’t I just ignore it all? The wind whooshes outside our bedroom window. I hear the maple swaying, imagine its wet leaves littering the ground and front walk,…
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Call me sparkle toe!
Even though I’ve never worn glittery tops with letters that flash my undeniable school pride, and Even though I loathe finding tiny flecks of glitter stuck to my otherwise plain shirt after opening my craft closet, and Even though I’ve been stuck in the filthy mire of the news and its portents of doom, haunting …
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Friday’s phone call
Hi, Grammy! How was your day, sweet girl? Medium. Medium? Tell me about it. Well, I didn’t like being hit in the head with thirty-five balls today. What! All the girls were screaming and crying and huddled against the wall. What was going on? The boys were throwing balls … at our heads. Oh! Ohhhhhh,…
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The worst poem I ever wrote
Thirty-some years ago, finally divorced after months of marital and individual counseling and hours of agony trying to understand it all, I was settling in my hometown with three kids and a regular visitation schedule to their dad. Alone, every other weekend, I had nothing to do, except fret and wonder what was happening while…
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A dog’s life?
Shooting over the deck rail across the lily bed lightning fast straight to the corner where the sage and yarrow bloom, Eliza darts through my space. She’s on the chase! It’s a rabbit! Probably the one that’s been eating my carrots and cutting my flowers. The cunning creature needs no siren. It bounds out of…
