Category Archives: Creative

She shambles by
My back door
While I'm drinking
My special coffee
Feeding my spirit
And other exceedingly
Consequential activities
She walks like she's
Always about to bang a right
With her CVS bag 
Of godknowswhat
And her 4-legged cane
That she could
Really do without
I heard her
Before I saw her
Coming up the
Sidewalk to the left
Conversing soulfully
With one who wasn't there
And maybe never was

Cover Photo by Vlad Chețan from Pexels
See more of Vlad’s work at https://www.instagram.com/vladchetan.ro/

Jonathan was a friend I met while at Lowell House Men’s Recovery Home. When he got there his kids were with strangers, he didn’t even have visitation privileges. Their mother wasn’t in the picture. Over the course of several months Jonathan went through a lot of work to get visitation, custody, employment, and housing for him and his kids. I saw him, his son, and his daughter April 23, 2019 at a dinner at the Recovery Home for graduates. Everything was going well. He overdosed and died about a week later.

Thanks for taking us to that dinner, Dad

Back where you used to live

We played on the floor with your friend

And that stupid Dexter cat

That used to make you sneeze

Sneaked looks at the weird White guys

That think they’re cool, cuz they wear ‘our’ clothes, right Dad?

You joked about doing dishes, sneaking food, and smoking where you weren’t ‘sposed to 

A lady let me make PBJs, and we served them like fancy desserts, on a tray

And played a game with a pretty bald lady, who smiled like she liked us

They talked to you different Dad, like proud, we were too.

What did we do Dad?

Were the PBJs no good?

Did we color outside the lines?

I thought we said thank you and please

I’da picked up my clothes faster Dad

Or not fell behind at the mall

Sometimes I stopped just to watch you walk

Your head up finally, for once

We woulda done better Dad.

But you left us again.

It woulda been better, Dad, if you never came back at all

May 1, 2019