Mummy’s on the floor,
I shout with breath like marbles
rolling across the table.
There is a stone in my chest
A Lego under my foot
A box of crayons knocked over,
Flailing like sailors thrown
Overboard.
Sniff
Sniff
Smell fear
Smell panic
Smell death
Smell the smell of the smell of
The smell of
Gone.
I bite my lip,
Shocked like a TV frozen
On static.
My my my my my my my
Daughter my daughter.
R...
If only she knew
That the way the morning dew glistens
On the leaves is more important
Than the boy who stomped
Her heart to pieces.
If only she knew
That reaching out to you, to talk
Would take weight from her
Shoulders, steam from her mouth,
Sadness from her body, like a reverse injection.
If only she knew
That reading through a book,
Or singing a song, would help
Her to control the panic ...
2019, you weren’t kind to me.
For every
Every good thing
It felt like you
Gave me
Two bad things
In return.
Why is it
That you
Tease me with life and
Art and rhythm and then
Suck the joy
Out of my life
Like a mosquito?
Why is it that you
Reward
Other people
For my misery?
I am in a fishbowl,
Russian roulette
With the odds stacked against me.
So I’m glad
To be leaving you behind;
A steppi...
September 24th, 1989. The day everything changed.
Everybody knows that my sister Harriet isn’t really missing: she’s dead. She was murdered. And everybody knows who the murderer is, too, but that’s a taboo subject in my family. If you dare mention my Uncle Terry in the presence of my parents, they’ll turn white as chalk and usher you from the room.
I was 12. We shared a room, Harriet and I. She...