My husband's poetry

Category: abuse

  • the abusing vine

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    by

    cfblack
    in , ,

    Before it strangles all life From the tree Cut the choking vine At the base of the trunk For a while It will remain Overhead as a reminder But in time it will fall away Dry and dead Gather it up From cold ground Pile it at the curb Let the city haul it away…

  • Room 511

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , , ,

    I didn’t walk yesterday, ordered out for wings, didn’t cook or lift weights, went to bed before 9, told myself it was just a nap. 4 am, I woke from a dream I had been sent to Room 511 to prepare a patient for electro shock therapy. I untied her gown, strapped her tight to…

  • stick pins

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    by

    cfblack
    in , ,

    I stood in the bathroom this morning, smelled an open bottle of medicinal alcohol Images of fruit jars, alcohol soaked cotton swabs, vomiting insects choking on guts Grade school bug collection I never brought mine home to hang on bedroom wall Smell death lingering in flesh I daydreamed butterflies unable to land feed on nectar,…

  • for Duane

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , ,

    What ever happened to the boy in school With pop bottle lens Who couldn’t play like other boys at recess Who didn’t stand and fight Or wrestle his tormentors; I was a tormentor I didn’t know at the time I was, but I was gifted at making cutting remarks Disguised as humor to make Classmates…

  • September 1969

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    by

    cfblack
    in , ,

    Whose car is that? …..Mine I didn’t say you could have a car …..It’s a gift If I thought you needed a car I’d get you a car …..An old couple whose yard I mow …..came by the grocery with it We don’t take charity …..Dad – they were just being nice No! they were…

  • Cherry thief

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    by

    cfblack
    in , ,

    hot day supper’s hours away no one in the kitchen jar of Maraschino cherries sits alone in Frigidaire pop two in your mouth, flee out back door _____ return for supper angry Maraschino cherry mom questions pass blame suggest a sibling back hand to face “That’s for my cherries’ then another “That’s for lying” _____…

  • Dreaming with migraine headaches

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , , ,

    waking in a time loop of childhood terrors reading in front of class with a speech impediment holding your arm to control a tic trying not to hum or have outbursts in class scrapping in the hall because someone made fun paddlings in the office whippings when you got home suicidal thoughts you fought to…

  • One-winged bird

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , , ,

    On a wall of my mother’s parents’ living room hung her siblings all in a row and a photo of Grandpa’s family. It took me 68 years to ask where was grandma’s family. A simple answer, a dark secret or just the misogyny of an old German family. I’ll never know. The whys of this…

  • Pet Obedience School in a Time of Voter Suppression

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , ,

    Chose a pet wisely if they’re rambunctious when no one is watching, let the shelter put the free-spirited to sleep Habituate them to a cage, jerk their chain and when you demand obedience they’ll follow quietly behind performing for treats —-Dedicated to all the voters who stood in line for hours trying to vote 6-16-20

  • Spare the rod, Save the child

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , , ,

    All night, you keep waking in school wooden paddles on bare skin stomach punches behind closed doors Cold winter hallways laughter in the classroom isolation you still feel They are probably all dead except in your head where they hide and never leave Bastards keep saying you deserve it and you hate yourself for wanting…