Category Archives: Poetry

Bus Stop

Posted on March 13, 2018 by sputterpub

Arriving at the bus stop yesterday, my app displayed the disappointing news: a dozen minutes late! (That’s half the way I’d planned to ride.) And so I got to choose a standing wait with phone and book, or stroll with … Continue reading →

Posted in Neighborhood, Poetry | Leave a comment

Notions

Posted on March 12, 2018 by sputterpub

I know I was a handful: scared my mom and stunned my dad with willfulness and heat. Wicked-bright and booming like a bomb, I overfilled our den. I wasn’t sweet and patient. I defied the girl-police. I had too many … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

Anti-Perspirant

Posted on March 8, 2018 by sputterpub

Arriving home last night, I was annoyed to find the shared recycle bin too crammed. As if my time should weekly be employed collapsing neighbors’ refuse! I’ll be damned, I muttered, but converted that within to smiling at the mindlessness … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior Modification, Poetry | Leave a comment

Generation Skipping

Posted on March 6, 2018 by sputterpub

“You do too much,” my mother says of late, who used to carp at me for laziness. I haven’t shirked real work. I’m 68, and though I harbor barks of craziness, I’ve never dropped an oar. I pull my weight, … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Poetry | Leave a comment

Meant Empty Words

Posted on March 5, 2018 by sputterpub

It does no good to say I told you so. That irritates the hearer to a snit. The speaker was correct, and needn’t throw a boast about. It’s inappropriate and doesn’t work. Like when you’re judging me, you say you’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Lessons, Poetry | Leave a comment

Pathetic Fallacy

Posted on March 1, 2018 by sputterpub

The weather seemed in sympathy that day with his despair: abysmal dismal guy. But that was mere coincidence – the way he staggered out, tear-blinded as the sky shellacked his pain with rainfall. Inside out ran water, but that wasn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

A Grandma’s Lament

Posted on February 27, 2018 by sputterpub

A dozen years ago, a boy was born who made a grandmother of her and me. Released from life, she’s now a loss to mourn, and this is offered as an elegy. We needed her. The grandpas aren’t close; the … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Poetry | Leave a comment

Justification

Posted on February 26, 2018 by sputterpub

I feel a little altered, and it’s good. I’m safe at home without a task that calls. There’s gentle rain outside to darken wood and speckle glass, and as the moisture falls the tense contractions in my limbs unfold. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

Stun

Posted on February 22, 2018 by sputterpub

I’m stunned by the mortality of men I used to love. They ought to stay alive, although I never thought I’d see again the three no longer breathing of the five significant to me as partners: first and last and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | 1 Comment

First World Problem

Posted on February 20, 2018 by sputterpub

A first world problem challenges its host as much as if its scale, in tragic score, were strong as the misfortunes striking most in disadvantaged circumstances. More or less, it seems the sufferer cannot endure another atom of distress. Whatever … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | 2 Comments