I shared poems

I shared some poems for the first time... In a public place. Of course, very delicate sensitive poems because they are me.

I worry that it will somehow get traced back to me as a person (just like on this site) but I figured I'd take my chances... And now I feel like sharing a few with you guys. I hope you don't mind.

The first poem:

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Cinderella

My mother moved through the loss of divorce…

Heartbroken and sanity barely intact.

The bright, healthy smile bordered in 90’s volume hair

Is locked into photos no one remembers.

Left are memories of her leaning over the kitchen counter,

In daisy dukes and cherry-print crop top,

Downing her dark ale in one shaking hand,

And sexting my soon-to-be step-father in the other.

Her hands, so brittle they can break on my cheekbone,

Danced on her phone to the tempo of her tapping red shoe,

Until moving her gaunt frame, wrapped paper-pale skin,

To dispose of the glass once holding her breakfast.

She rummaged through her pot-pungent purse,

Full of saved funds from forfeiting

Food she did not want for herself

And medication she would not buy.

Then, after finding her beloved bottle opener,

She entered the almost empty fridge

And snatched up its only contents.

The next beer cap clattered loudly onto the tile.

Her depressed brown eyes looked up,

From under crackling, malnourished hair,

When I started washing my rice bowl,

The only set piece she had left intact.

She gave up her career because of “a mistake”

She “lived for her kids” as a single stay-at-home mom,

On welfare stubs and with no child support

But no memory for her kids birthdays

Her voice was frightening in hushed tones,

So her icy silence was almost peaceful

She’s only a sad Cinderella

Eternally waiting a prince to fulfill the shattered glass dreams

Unwilling to find the happiness within her