Welcome Home
Car parts
and metal scraps strewn about
The stench
of cars and animals and smoke
Sirens,
gunshots, children in the streets
as weeds
grow over the lawn
and food
rots in the refrigerator
I thought I had escaped it all
Warm gatherings,
family and friends
a nice
new place to call home
a love
that never existed, was unreal
No need
to worry about money or love
I thought I had it all
My place
at the table is empty, gone
Children
in the streets, weeds in the lawn,
car parts
in the yard, the stench is everywhere
in my
new place that I call home
where
food rots in the refrigerator
I am welcomed
home by it all
May 2001
Temper and Fever
Hot surges
of energy course through my brain.
What is
it that hurts me the most?
Let me
find it--let me hurt it--let me destroy it!
The one who
takes great pride in who he hates
Announces
it to the world and turns the world against me
The one who
took my life away from me
Abandoned
me, ruined me and rubbed it in my face
The one who
will never give me a new life
As much
as I need it, long for it, thirst for it
Struggling--strangling--I'm
strong for my stature
They have
to restrain me--they pull me back screaming
Screaming
for the life he will never give me
Screaming
for the filth he left in my womb
when he
took my life away from me
Screaming
for the world that has turned against me.
June 2001
Drowning
I called for help and no one came
They were
too busy vacationing
too busy
caring for others
too busy
hating me, watching me drown
too busy
laughing in glee as I drowned
I called for help and no one came
Alone in
the cold dark water
facing
my greatest fear
being
alone, drowning, drowning
I called for help and no one came
They were
too busy
July 2001
Medications
I take these pills to make the pain go away....
I take these
pills so my tooth doesn't hurt.
I take
these pills so the infection goes away.
I take
these pills so I don't look so bloated.
I take
these pills so I don't have a baby.
I take
these pills to make my face look pretty.
I take
these pills so I can sleep at night.
Nothing helps
Nothing
works
They just
give me pills
and send
me home
But the pain
is still there
as these
pills work to make me perfect
No pills
can make the pain go away.
July 2001
The Joy of Commuting
(this
is one that will definitely go down in the Book of Bad Poetry!!)
I went out
to my car today
and noticed
on the back
a scratch
along the side--no way!
and touch-up
paint I lack.
I paid a
hundred dollars just to
park in
student lots.
I'll pay
whoever knows how much to
fix the
dents and dots.
I think that
someone hit my car,
and they
just didn't care.
Now I
should park far away, real far,
which
isn't really fair.
September
2000
Central Michigan University
Winter
(ENG 294
iambic pentameter assignment)
I feel the
sharper bite that's in the air.
The winter's
here; its rath we can't escape.
Break
out the flannel sheets, turn up the heat.
It's time
for heavy coats and gloves and hats.
The snow
is falling down upon the ground,
It's covering
the earth with blankets white,
and in
the house the furnace keeps us warm.
September
2000
Central Michigan University
Untitled
Whatever happened
to you, old friend?
I sent
you letters long ago
to wherever
you're at,
hoping
they would reach you.
I know
no other way of reaching you
than a
letter.
But why
don't you answer?
I don't
remember any hard feelings,
and all
I wanted
was to
wish you luck
with your
upcoming marriage.
September
2000
Central Michigan University
Me - A Group Poem
This
poem was written partially by myself and the rest written by my group members
in my ENG 294 (Creative Writing) class.
The exercise was to pass
the paper around and come up with lines for the poem until
we couldn't come up with
any more. Although ours wasn't as funny as the one the other group wrote
about lusting for an oak tree,
this is still pretty good.
I am bigger
than nine universes and strong like
Zeus,
Apollo, or Hercules.
And as
I command my world
Sudden
realization comes to me
I'm not
the big ruler, I can't control anything (this is the only line I wrote)
What is
there for me to control, what is my purpose?
I don't
know what I'll do or how to accomplish it
I'm tired
of asking myself questions; I want the sky.
September
2000
Central Michigan University
Big Sky
(Big Sky
Periodicals, this one's for you!)
Butterflies
make my
stomach feel
nervous,
scared
from my
brain to my
gut, where
I
have this
gut feeling
I just
got
into some
trouble
with a
rich
money-scamming
group
of people
that
have top-end
lawyers
and all
that
I did
was tell the
public
that
they were
out to steal.
October 2000
Central Michigan University
My Childhood
The
way this poem is set up is very complicated. It is called a sestina: 39 lines,
six stanzas, each of six lines, with a
final one of three lines.
We had to use the same six words at the end of every line in a certain fashion...
see if you can
pick it out. Our challenge
was to write one of these things, and somehow I managed to do it and "did
it well,"
according to my teacher.
Way back
when I was a little girl
in second
or third grade, elementary school,
I wasn't
one of those popular kids.
So puny
and ugly, I was often teased.
The bus
stop was the worst; the kids would fight
over who
was first in line, and the blame was on me.
I came home
and cried because the kids picked on me.
I didn't
have cool clothes; I was the dirty nasty girl
and on
the playground they would pick a fight.
I never,
ever wanted to go to school.
They encircled
me, and I was endlessly teased
by those
horrible, hateful kids.
But I was
harassed not only by the kids.
The playground
monitors--one lived near me
and her
small son was one that always teased
my sisters
and I--and they called me the girl
who didn't
bathe, smelled nasty and came to school.
The playground
ladies looked down on me--did they want to fight?
I was never
one to try and start a fight.
I just
wanted out--I secretly hated the kids
who tortured
me when I went to school.
Did they
not have feelings? Couldn't they understand me?
They didn't
see I was no more than a little girl
and like
anyone, I shouldn't have been teased.
Of course,
I should never have been teased.
Those
kids always wanted to pick a fight
and most
were boys--so to fight with a girl--
they should
have been ridiculed by the other kids.
Mom and
Dad couldn't buy cool clothes for me.
I looked
like a "scrub" when I went to school.
Luckily I
survived, and I made it through school.
Now I'm
grown-up--never again will I be teased,
except
maybe by that old playground lady who lives by me,
and luckily
she never tried to start a fight.
Now I'm
a clean, well-dressed, contented girl.
Such is my
tale of being a girl in school
who was
always teased by the other kids.
Come on,
playground lady--you wanna fight with me?
October 2000
Central Michigan University
Andrew
He found
his way
into the
elevator
pushed
the button for the floor
and went
up
weaving
through
the hallways
to her
room
and he
saw her lying there
asleep
and next
to her bed
was a
little bed
and inside
was a
newborn baby
that looked
just like
him
September
2000
Central Michigan University
The Shooting Star
The shooting
star flew above
the joyful
wedding celebration
at the
country club
The shooting
star went unnoticed
as families
watched in terror
while
firemen tried to put out the fire
in the
apartment building
The shooting
star was special
to the
little girl that was star-gazing
with her
daddy that night
The shooting
star meant hope
for the
dirty old war prisoner
trapped
in a cell somewhere....
he didn't
know where
The shooting
star was a blur in the sky
to the
rowdy, happy drunkards
that partied
until dawn
The shooting
star barely caught the attention
of the
sleepy young businessman
as he
drove down the dark and lonely road home
The shooting
star made its way across the sky
while
a pair of dreamers below on the earth
made their
own plans and dreams
for themselves
and each other.
October 2000
Central Michigan University
"Daniel"
How do I
take back those words I said?
I never
meant to hurt someone
that I
still cared so much about.
In a
few moments of carelessness,
craving
for any sort of attention from him,
I have
been left alone on these cold black nights,
my body
left cold where his arms were before.
I see him
every day, yet never a word spoken.
My heart
aches when I cast my eyes upon him,
knowing
that his heart burns
with hatred
for me
while
mine still burns with love for him.
All I can
do now is hope for the day
when his
heart crosses that thin line
that separates
love and hate.
August 2001
[more poetry]
UNITED WE STAND
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED
ON 09/15/2002
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JASON!