02. Snoopy
What does it feel like when you are in fourth grade
and your mom gets cancer?
The cure for writer’s block
is laundry. Cram both arms with dirty clothes and stuff them in the washer. Brim the detergent, vinegar, bleach, if you dare. Sit back down. Write a bit more. In thirty minutes or an hour, the dinger will ding. Heap the wet mess into the dryer, but wait. The dryer is already packed because you …
Who Am I?
“Let’s go for a walk,” she’d say, and then my mother would circle the block. I’d question why we couldn’t go farther. My body could handle it. But Merry Nell’s couldn’t. She needed a horcrux or, perhaps, more than one horcrux. To figure that out, she’d need a longer walk through the neighborhood. She’d be …
Blue Moon
Mom gets two full moons, one early, one on New Year’s Eve eve when we talk as only mothers and daughters can— speech as rocky as the lunar surface. After she’s gone will I still orbit her earth? Will her tides still move my every wave? I am standing alone, waving goodbye. She will ring …
Valentine’s Chai
Sitting in a sunny cafe, I call my parents because I can’t stand to hear bad news at home. So I call from here, on my cell, armed with chai. She’s telling the doctor, No more. She will leave his office with some pills that will lengthen her sweet tooth in time for Valentine’s Day. …
Hold Onto Poetry—You’ll Need It
Editor’s Note: Part memoir, part humorous and poignant defense of poetry, The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life with Poems is a book that shows you what it is to live a life with poems at your side. This is chapter one from the book. The first poem I …
Still
A clump of bluebonnets stands in the alley long pastMemorial Day. Usually they’re fried by Easter.In the spring they grow in green pastures, beside busy highways. Now they look tired, out of place,like they didn’t get the notice that it’s timeto make room for the warm wild flowers.Tomorrow is Independence Day, and they’re still there …
All the Poets
See all articles • See all poems A Anderson, Scott Edward B Barkat, L.L. Barry, Tina Bateman, Claire Bernstein, Carole Billone, Amy Blevins, Allison Boggess, Laura C Castle, Luanne Curtin, Shannon D Dower, Kim G Goodyear, Marcus H Holmes, Karen Paul Howe, Marie I Iorio, Vicki Vener K Karetnick, Jen King, Sandra Heska Kipling, Rudyard …