My husband's poetry

Category: childhood

  • Dreaming prime numbers 7,919

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    by

    cfblack
    in , , ,

    You climb Your favorite neighborhood tree from childhood. You climb until you can see Beyond the trees and houses of your neighborhood. Your neighbor does not want you in their tree And neither does dad. They call up through the branches. You stay still until they leave. On the way home, you rehearse a story,…

  • Cassie’s hat

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    by

    cfblack
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    sunrise, thirty degrees, take your blood pressure meds and crawl back in bed 9 am, put on Cassie’s hat, grab coffee in a blue cup and walk to the park watch mallards rush to safety on the other side of the pond as you approach return from the park, your father’s voice demands to know…

  • Biopsy of fear

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    by

    cfblack
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    Old man steps out his back door into darkness, Shivers with apprehension that borders on fear, Childhood bogeymen who lurk in the dark. He gathers himself, reaches down for old habits: Steps off his porch, walks towards the woods, Finds a darker place among the shadows, Closes his eyes and waits for fear to become…

  • a one-sentence letter to my dead mother

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    by

    cfblack
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    Dear Mom This morning, I watched birds flit and flutter about our yard, remembered your love of birds and decided that next spring, in your honor, I will ignore the childhood ear worms you implanted in my external auditory meatus canal and no longer will obsess about cleaning windows, because clean windows reflect sky and…

  • Parking lot civics

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    cfblack
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    Last night, I dreamed of the old man who used to rest his hand on my head while talking with dad in the parking lot after church. He lived in an old clapboard farmhouse where gravel turned to blacktop and subdivisions grew among the corn. Rooted in old settler stock, he ran for state legislature…

  • Momma said

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    cfblack
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    Momma said, Take your shoes off on the back porch, I just mopped the floor. Leave you muddy clothes out there, too and keep your dirty hands off my clean wall. Momma said, Come eat, clear your plate before TV, quit picking on your sisters or I’ll beat knots on your head. Momma said, It’s…

  • haiku memory

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    cfblack
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    fig newton Friday’s only take two – sneak one more childhood payday treat 9-3-22

  • First of August

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    by

    cfblack
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    In the half dark after prayer lost in meditation I fall back asleep and wake to mom calling from the kitchen, “Who left the milk out?” I can’t decide whether to admit my guilt or pretend I’m still asleep and hope one of my siblings takes the blame. 8-1-22

  • school maze

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    by

    cfblack
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    I wander hallways looking for classroom doors of teachers who believed in me even when I didn’t, who kept trying to encourage even when I was disrespectful, who tried to mitigate my angry spirit even as I called them names, but all the doors are closed and locked, and the teachers have all gone home;…

  • untitled memory

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    by

    cfblack
    in ,

    Your band played a frat party near campus You told her you’re a university student She said she was a freshman there, too Monday in the hallway Outside your high school cafeteria You see her talking with her friends, Go up and say Don’t I know you from somewhere And smile She looks away in…