“Before and Again” by Luanne Castle

The we of my belief lived in a land
of easy comfort, brief and surface woundings,
even when tussled by history
that lasted a month on our portable television.
 
We swept the broken pieces into piles
thinking our bonfires would destroy memories.
We continued to sweep invisible gravel,
rusted fenders, and chicken shit into squares.
 
Over the years, unnoticed by us, trash piled up
behind the propane tanks and storage sheds,
but the squares out front distracted us with
their seeming importance and sheen.
 
One day we made breakfast for our children
and sent them off to school; within minutes
we began the crossing through broken glass.
Looking down I saw scraps of torn angel wings.
 
Now we live in a land new to us, with patched
windows and doors, having stuffed the shards
into our hearts so that they are bulky jabby
things we have to handle with Kevlar gloves.

Copyright © 2023 Luanne Castle
All Rights Reserved

Luanne Castle lives in Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare. She has published two full-length poetry collections, Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press 2022) and Doll God(Aldrich/Kelsay 2015), which won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry. Kin Types (Finishing Line Press 2017), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Luanne’s Pushcart and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, American Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, River Teeth, TAB, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, and other journals.

Featured Image: by Science Freak on Pixabay

Editor: Barbara Harris Leonhard

MasticadoresUSA is open for submissions. Send your submissions to meelosmom@gmail.com.

About Us and the New Submission Guidelines

Amazon Best-Selling Author

Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022)

Pushcart Nominee, 2022

Facebook: Barbara Harris Leonhard /barbara.leonhard

Twitter: @BarbaraLeonhar4

Instagram: @meelosmom123

Linked In: ExtraordinarySunshineWeaver

Mastodon: @BarbaraLeonhard@msdtn.social

Divider Image: by GDJ on Pixabay

Anuncio publicitario