Tag Archives: poetry prompt

Hold the fork just so.

Do not like the prongs scrape against the white

porcelain slathered with the red sauce

that gives you heartburn,

but is his Mama’s recipe.

Do not breathe too heavily.

Don’t make eye contact.

That tension’s back in the air.

Feels hard to breathe it in, like

it fights with lungs for every sliver

of oxygen they manage to steal.

Don’t swallow loudly.

Even though the pasta

sludge in your throat.

Something happened at work

on the way home from work

or in checkout line for tonight’s paper bag filled nightmare.

The 5 Ws are only important

to people afforded the luxury to ask questions.

Keep your face smooth.

If you think quietly,

you could manage to disappear.

Fade into the wallpaper like

the antique roses on grandmama’s walls.

Just yesterday he had given you a rose.

Maybe that was last week.

Chipped counter holds the

curled petals,

their beauty leached from them.

Don’t ask questions.

Don’t frown.

Don’t smile.

Just don’t-

This is response to the poetry prompt for The Reverie Journal this week and Poets on the Page. I thought of cycles and immediately thought of the cycle of abuse. This is  the moment before the abuse starts. After the honeymoon period when things have settled and gone back to stasis.

Is there a cycle in life that makes your fingers itch to write? It doesn’t have to be a heavy topic, of course. That’s all up to you.

Aloha y’all!