Day Seven, Road Trip 2015

walk across downtown
 with my urban planning mom
 walking rating: zilch
 
 veggies are heavy
 when carrying Kentucky
 weight on both shoulders
 
 redemptive moment
 on green lake with blue kayaks
 (words he’ll never read)
 
 a campfire end
 to a summer daydream trip
 (only innocence)
 
 full circle i’ve turned
 since five years back, her birth year
 (my first niece. cousins)
 
 but he won’t see that.
 only weakness bearing down
 on our bright union
 
 love like this? just once.
 with dark swings on late porches
 he can’t even touch
 
 but for her bright eyes
 the firelit sunset eve
 forgiveness follows.
 

Always

five girls in the darkmarching their way through puddles

no picture for this
offhanded remark 

stings bright as two years ago

women always blamed
we will never win

testosterone dominance

it’s always our fault 
does she even know

why sobriety hurts here?

best to stay silent
i chose solo trip

(his absence clings to my soul)

yet–girls are happy
mother’s sacrifice 

comes in beer runs and ice cream

(things they’ll never see)