Is This All She Is?
By S.E.B. Detling
Her looming figure filled my childhood bedroom
with fear and shame.
In adulthood, she no longer towers over me.
Rather, I look down on her rich, brown curls fading to gray
as she stoops to collect her ammunition of pebbles. As she hopes
still, with her homemade arsenal, to break me
When Sufficient Is Good Enough
By S.E.B. Detling
Not war-torn or knowingly trafficked,
what can I say when my mother asks, How was your life?
She sits straight-backed with eyes deflected so, I tell her
the positives. There was a house where I slept and ate.
I had clothes. Then I stop. Cross my legs.
Oh, yes, I had a dog. Her body softens. Good, she sighs.
If Reincarnated
By S.E.B. Detling
If reincarnated into this family again, I’d like to be a dog or flower.
You see, my mother collects orchids and chihuahuas.
She nurtures them. Smiles. Speaks to them in soft, kind phrases.
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