Category: fear
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rescue dogs
Rescue dogs press ribs against chain link fences. Hunger grows fur and learns to whimper. Each carries a story written in mange, cigarette burns, missing ears, limps that predicted rain. When anyone lifts their hand too quickly, a brindled mutt hides beneath a plastic chair. Volunteers call them damaged, but the dogs still wagged their…
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(untitled) no matter how sharp
No matter how sharp No matter how strong A sword is just a sword I fear the swordsman – not The artisan at the forge 5-20-26
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Leave a window open
When clouds and thunder pulled curtains over the sun, momma would read scriptures written in the sky. She have us throw open the southwest windows, because if the pressure could somehow equalize and if the house had enough fresh air to recite prayers and if the walls held no fear of dying, the house would…
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Backyard buck
Behind my battered backyard fence, bent boughs, bold bamboo, brazen kudzu begin their annual green grab…again. Morning moves slowly over moss. With singing saw and steel bit I split saplings in two and battle brush. -Suddenly- Through the green, a big, bewildered, broad-chested, bristle-boned buck bounds down the brambled bank. Dry leaves dance. My heart…
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Wake
I used to wake in the middle of the night, watch you fall in slow motion from the sky, unable to catch you. Did dreams and premonitions of death ever haunt you and wake you in the middle of the night? I wanted you to be happy and did not tell you my dreams. Now…
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Biopsy of fear
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…
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Dear Siri
Because there was no how-to manual and GPS does not chart every trail in the wilderness of relationships, Because my mother was a perfectionist, I don’t know when good Is good enough, And because I’m a soul having a bodily experience for my first and only time, I wake up in the middle of the…
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pen pals
My two older sisters had pen pals they’d talk about when the mail came I’d steal into their room to read the letters and pretend they were my friends I wanted a pen pal but was afraid no one would want to be my friend if they knew I had a speech impediment, hummed constantly…
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Scream
A scream in the night is not meant to be a warning, but you check the front door lock and dial 911 You sit behind the curtain stare through the crack into the dark and wish you were brave enough to go outside You wait for blue lights that seem as if they’ll never come…
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Still running
After dark you walk in the park with Memories of walking to the store as kid Because you didn’t want to get caught And pay a toll to older boys, you’d run home If your father found out you ran He’d have sent you back to fight A deer snorts, jumps high and runs if…
My husband's poetry 