Poem: Maryland in Brief

Maryland my home
Where first ancestors flourished
Kissed by deep waters

Poem: Chesapeake Home

Old tobacco barns and fields of dust
Stories about how life used to be
Before they put the highway through the farm
I used to sit in that old white steeple church
The Enoch’s hands built and contemplate praying

Poem: Roots

Bare feet in a cold creek
Painted toes curling in soft mud
This is where I have chosen
To root myself in this world

Poem: House on Fire

A
home
is a place
where she used
to live with parents
who treated her like a
pet // fun to show off and
then put back in a cage

Poem: Powder Keg

Momma and daddy were gasoline and gunpowder
Playing at least once a week with matches
Until someone exploded into a raging inferno
Large enough that we feared it would consume us
No one ever died but we all had scars from the burns
That never quite healed despite the passing of years

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Poem: The Winding Down

Daddy is home and the children rush
To wrap their arms around them
Like so many times before
Laughing and chattering and vying
For some piece of his attention

Mother is in the kitchen cooking
Being a good house wife
Keeping the home and the children
Protecting all of their dreams
At the expense of hers