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Pissed Off: A Short List
Note: The assignment was to express anger. I definitely had a lot of anger at the time I wrote this rant. This poem has some bad language, so don’t read it if that might offend you. I worked at a department store from the summer before my sophomore year in college until the end of my first year of grad school. “Pissed Off: A Short List” Free Verse, Poetry Workshop, 2002 My friends think I am angry all the time. They are probably right. On any given day I can list many things that really truly piss me off. Why is it that people steal and don’t even try to hide…
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Cancer and Five Old Clocks
“Cancer and Five Old Clocks” Rhythmic Stanzaic Poetry, Poetry Workshop 2002 I’d rather wash clothes, scrub a dirty floor, Than sit here waiting, looking out my door. To wait takes time that I may not reclaim. Waste whisks away with only one to blame. I sit and think. Not having time to die Does not ensure no pain. I want to lie, Be bored, regret, complain, and not be scared. I’ll ask God “Why?” Hell, how could He have dared? Cancer, I feel alone. I should not wait, Lying in bed while my loved ones create New stories to distract me from dying. I’d rather hear anything but crying. Instead…
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Faith
“Faith” Free verse poetry, Poetry Workshop 2002 She might have lost her faith in God that night Had life’s stopped heart not started again when She cried and beat her fists upon his chest. Liquor—the silent, killing distraction That screwed his mind—left him dying, gasping. Her heart of needles continued to beat, But with each beat, bad thoughts and blood would clash And clot and send rotting acidic waves To her stomach: cancerous ulcer and death. She has time for neither. The life she had Chased died before she knew. She found the ghost Of his memory—the man who could have died Without her pleading prayers and tears. He lived, But…