kristin marie

Overwhelming angst boils spoiled
onto the parched linoleum.
Without income the outcome for her son
is stunned victim.
The numb cracks in the foil floor recoil poor
and squirm lackadaisical like a languid worm
Proclaiming the poignant decent of this pregnant parent,
indifferent to her infant.

Unkempt visions of safety and success
drip under this nasty nation’s foundation,
where partisan puddles of damp delusion
water the dormant roots of ivy and hope.
They wearily wait for the savior sun to nourish this nameless neighborhood.

They understood, she’d come home if she could.
The black bars and topaz glass window panes
reflected the neglected future of her seeds.
Collected and injected she drew the shades,
left them emptied to bleed
on the dismal pedestal from which she slipped and fell.
Leaving her babies heartsick
for her caustic lipstick kisses.

Big brother has no intention to question ambition or mention tuition
He’s been slingin’ now to bring in a livin’, soverign.
Solid without her squalid skin and despondent demeanor
--they haven’t seen her.

And so depressed and stressed mama’s grace
is replaced by mace to save face.
Retribution for pragmatic misdemeanors lends cause to
hurtle rocks against locks and soap boxes.
Once buried and bruised,
she leaned on booze as an excuse for abuse.

Broken butterfly wings now litter the sidewalk,
obstructing the direction of her daydreams for moonbeams
and the resurrection of dampered daddies.
Snuffed by soot and cigarette ashes,
splashes of guilt are smeared on street corners
by her childrens’ broken curiosity of a world
which once to them seemed bigger than her criminal culpability.

bmm 10/04