Category: NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo #13

trE

hard-earned money that never lasts

9-11 hour days
that include overtime
as extra money for
a trip home, vet visit,
and upcoming car
tag renewal have me
exhausted

the grind is essential
“they say” to maintain
a certain status quo

I just want to do everything
I need and want to do
without being too
tired to do everything I
need and want to do

don’t you

NaPoWriMo #12

trE

plucking chin hair on a Wednesday night

an audio poem

plucking chin hair on a Wednesday night

no one ever told me
aging would mean
facial creams
lactose alternatives
tweezing chin hair
or massaging achy knees
all before 10 PM

I would’ve appreciated
the memo

instead, I’m stuck
doing all these things
and plucking ingrown hairs
from a stubborn chin
as I listen to
soft soul music
via surround sound
on a Wednesday night

the dog stands at
the master bath’s doorway
watching me fit a face
that takes so much
work to hold up against
all odds

I wonder if she has
a better way to
calm perimenopausal
symptoms or if she’s
just being so damn nosy

NaPoWriMo #11

trE

soon come

44 will be here soon
and I flail my limbs,
worried that age will
age me

the plan is to steal away
to my homestate and
build with Earths and Gods
and have a family
affair with the bloodline

the dog will be in tow
as I shift from place
to place lacing the
spaces with my presence

I’ll finally meet my ex’s
wife and their beautiful
girls, stuff my belly alongside
my favorite veteran, and
chop it up with the elders
as I drink in their wisdom

I want to build on
future dreams that’ll
propel me forward and
lay down the past ache
that follows me when
I visit home

maybe this year
it’ll be different

NaPoWriMo #10

trE

Damage Control

He wasn’t built to
love her with his
whole heart–he’d been
damaged, and she was
saving herself for a man
who knew how to break the
walls of her hardened heart
down.

He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

She saw through his
cloudy existence, and fed
off his syrupy words, so
sticky and sweet, but
she wouldn’t reject his
advances.

She played nice with this
man who clicked his tongue
and snapped his mind
back into the now–willing
it from actions of the past.
He swallowed every image
of her and filled his
belly with lies.

For decades, he spent hours
dissecting his former self
from his present self, and
now that it’s time to love
again, the control he never
had sneaks up on him.

Forever changed. Forever damaged.