PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Twenty years ago

in the back yard

lying flat by the rose bush 

you died alone

that was the last time I

ever remembered shivering with

God up under my skin

It was like shaking out a drug,

me praying to a faceless thing 

letting my anger run loose 

finally

me free

me- a nameless thing

free of your violent flood

I broke your one rule, momma 

"be kind. be deserving of love"

because I had no concept of what that was:

             love. 

Yours- was so unremarkable 

so opposite 

How could I love anyone 

after your fists rendered me incapable 

They burned your body

and I remember the feeling,

like an emancipation

like

I had figured out salvation

and the hundred ways to fake it

two days later

I was given your ashes 

I flushed them in the downstairs toilet 

that moment 

I felt like a child at a carnival,

holding hands with something safe 

happy. 

knowing 

anything was possible now