SAMPLE POEMS – Coyotes in Broad Daylight <--back to main samples page

RESCUED GIRL
Your eyes haunt me. A smile
crosses your face
but your eyes house a lightning show,
all flashes,
sideways glances,
absolute focus on everyone
& everything around you—

like he’s right around the corner
with a belt.
Or a gun.
Or a drug.
Or his pants,
dragging the ground.
Him…the man who replaced
your father:
What was she thinking?
You’ve already seen enough
to lure the Queen of the Damned,
no wonder the movie entices you.
It reflects your everyday nightmares.

You engage me in a little German.
I teach you how to count to twenty,
Ein…zwei…drei…
while you sit in the back seat,
scraggly blonde locks dripping down a bathing suit—
No time to change. You don’t care.
You’re happy to be sitting in this car
with an absolute stranger,
waiting for dad
to emerge with your bags. You’re safe now.

I see too many stories in your eyes,
tales far more rooted in dark tangled forests
than the childhood I used as an excuse
for the cuts and scrapes
that festered over two adult decades
before I woke up and decided to heal myself
and realized it wasn’t so bad:
little fables compared to your stories.

All you want is a life
where you, too, can play
with your brothers and sisters,
scream, yell, huddle in corners
& whisper little nothings about boys,
not cook, scrub, scrape and clean up
the pieces of your mom after
the latest beating she’s taken.

“I like pink sunsets,” you tell me.
“They make me feel safe.
Cuddling in the sky makes me feel safe.”
You settle into your brother’s arms,
look up, cuddle the sky.

All you want is that chance.
Now you’ve got it,
We’re whisking you away
so your smile can open up
like those green eyes that never close.

I’ll be right there
as you blow out your birthday candles,
as you open your presents,
as you turn eight.

Coyotes in Broad Daylight Contents
What They Say
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