Spanish For No Reason
If I have to explain to you
why
I’m speaking one tongue
instead of the other
just because you’re
uncomfrotable,
it’s likely that any other
conversation we have
may
be absolutely
uninteresting to me
Dear my former self
Dear ten-year-old me,
Let’s get down to business shall we?
Firstly, take off the fake leather jacket,
It doesn’t look good, you look like a pretentious maggot,
We both know you’re only one of those,
Stop crying out “I know! Miss I know the answer”
It was a rhetorical question, you chancer,
And when you get something wrong,
Don’t cry, please don’t , you look like such a fool,
Don’t even get me started on the swimming pool,
Nobody likes it when you act so condescending,
Your massive ego is never-ending,
You just expect everything to go your way,
It won’t, so please just stop,
And grow the hell up
And I know this is cruel,
But I’m glad I’m not you,
— 13-year-old me
Summer Sunlight
True survival means that you find the best of things
Even from my childhood I learned this to be true
Mom was a stranger but I’m thankful that I am alive
I couldn’t stay with Grandma but the best I have of her thrives
He violated my spirit yet the best of soul survived
They thought they could contain me but I could not be denied
A rose in cement, yes I grew and from the ashes revived
Statistics say I would not grow up strong, but look I have have arrived.
jj2019 2019 Poetry Marathon
Kids those days
It wasn’t easy but we made it through together
food was scarce
new clothes a luxury
held by the arms of many mothers we knew love
and they knew all of our bedtimes
Childhood-Hour 23
Part One- I am my parents’ daughter
I carry their poverty
Their goodness
Their work ethic
Their sadness
Their height
Their love of music and books
Part 2
I am the youngest
Made fun of by siblings
I was the smallest
The weakest
Smart, but not smart enough
Always unable to measure up
In stature and in life
Part 3
Books saved me
Gave me a place to hide
Gave me a world to explore
Gave me hope in darkness
Gave me a family I could be a part of
Part 4
I was alone too much
I lived in fictional worlds
I made up in my head
At some point I wrote them down
That saved me
And destroyed me too
Part 5
I grew up in a town I hated
Sometimes I still miss it
Everyday I dreamed of better places
Still I am the Nebraska girl
But gone is her innocence and stamina
Nebraska is no place for a writer
Part 6
I found my soul
By letting go of the Bible
I found my heart
By being broken
I found my dreams
By running away
Letting go of everything I knew
I found my home
Winter’s Friend
Winter’s Friend
In dreams
Gliding untethered
Across clear ice
Turning
A crisp whoosh
To stop then bow
Blue wool hat
Edged with
Gentle white fur
Falling as feathers
A perfect holy
Angel
Rolling snow orbs
Fashioning a
Winter’s friend
Wrapping the
Red scarf
With reverence
Dreams melt as
Car doors slam
Needing help
The old woman
Walks carefully on
Winter memories
Tobe TT # 19
What To Write
What to write
What to write
This is what crosses my mind
As the last episode of Bones plays
And my site screen in front of my face
Working
Working
Living
Living
Living
So, how are you doing?
Copyright © 2019 by Angelica Stevenson
All Rights Reserved
Wild Life Tale (prompt 27 and 28, Hour 22)
My sister’s first mistake
was to buy a house with her ex-husband.
Her second was to buy that house, with a pool.
We were raised on the coast—fished, swam and surfed.
So sand crabs and jellyfish, sea urchins and sharks
were just part of our growing up.
It’s not like we are squeamish.
When her husband left, she could barely afford the house,
so it fell into what we graciously called lyrical disrepair.
It got serious when her backyard became a zoo.
First, the pool turned green. Unfortunate algae bloom.
Without chemicals to turn it around.
She thought seriously about turning it into a lily pond
by throwing mud into the bottom and adding fish.
It was so green it was probably seen from space.
So she pondered putting a Japanese bridge across it,
to pretend that it was a pond, so she could ignore it.
The grass got long. Her mower conked out.
Then the frogs moved in. Dozens of loud ones.
So loud she couldn’t sleep. One Saturday, she went out
and gathered a dozen big bulls, thought about eating them,
but walked them to the park and released them into the creek.
Then she noticed the snakes.
One rattler, two garter snakes, and a coral snake.
She solved that problem by giving them the back yard.
Plenty of room to walk the dog in the front, she said,
instead of letting him get a snake bite out in back.
It was a good thing, because next she noticed an armadillo
was a regular guest, with several raccoons. They washed
their food in the shallow end of the pool/pond.
Two supervising owls visited each night, seeking rodents,
but happy with snakes instead.
One night a skunk came by and was startled by the dog.
The beginning of the end. Bedlam ensued. A large
can of tomato juice washed one very distressed retriever
who was sure the shower spray was another skunk.
Took us hours to clean the house.
Traps from the humane society yielded
one skunk, one armadillo and two possums. The city
took them all away. After advice on reptile control, they
suggested that the flies bothering her house would be gone
once the pool was under control again.
A week later providence stepped in.
Her old employer needed her back, at her old job
and her old pay. Suddenly she could afford pool chemicals,
a new lawn mower, and a yard man.
For the first time in five years, she feels respectable.
She doesn’t know or care where the animals have gone..
And, no, zookeeper and naturalist are not on her resume.
Failure
Failure isn’t the Worst Thing.
There are plenty of things
I wouldn’t rather be. More still
I wouldn’t rather do. Failure
isn’t the end. This isn’t
Self Help. It is an End.
It bites like a horsefly
as you drift off to sleep.
But you can sleep again,
even before the bite heals.
Let it heal. Rest easy. Sleep again.
Tale of Childhood
1.
After a dark night,
There’s a surmise.
Although the moon is bright
And the stars infinite,
With the darkness I fight.
2.
After a hug tight,
There’s a surprise.
Although the kiss is just right
And the smiles infinite,
The love gives me a fright.
3.
After a twilight,
There’s a sunrise.
Although the glimpse is slight
And the feeling alright,
All I see is a lovely sight.
4.
After a skylight,
There’s an advice.
Although I get an insight
And a thought I write,
The souls are here to unite.