Karen Siewert Poems

Crawling
Sliding
Falling
Walking
...

The day starts with a cooling breeze
Dancing through your bedroom window
Pushing aside white lace curtains
Into the sparsely decorated room
...

a different kind of nightmare
is how it's referred to
but how different is it really
when it is the only life you know
...

Pants sagging low
Skirts riding high
Speaking broken English
Learned in a broken home
...

As he presses her back against the floor
The rhythmic creak of the wooden floor boards amidst the heated air reverberates throughout the mostly empty barn

The pressure of him atop her creates pink marks the length of her back
...

Blaze of white against sky of blue
Imitating stationary clouds
Golden light piercing rounded wood
Leaching away its nature
...

Cheese and guns
Cheese and guns
How to have the other without the one?
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What would you do if….?

I crushed dead the body of a small brown insect with the pointed heel of your favorite pair of my shoes I set fire to a flaming red leaf secretly hoping to ignite others I refused to swallow the sun allowing it to warm me from the inside out I ripped open bags meant for laying coverage along icy roads getting coarse reddish-brown sand beneath my nails that take days to wash away I whispered lies to you that you aren't sure are lies I sprinkled granules of salt in your coffee every day for a week I poured apple cider vinegar into your mostly empty bottle of Head & Shoulders I excised several pages in different areas of the book you're currently reading I squeezed shut your nose while you slept, cringing at the greasy feel beneath the tips of my thumb and pointer finger I loosened the coaxial cable on the cable box just enough so it wouldn't work but not enough for you to notice I deliberately stepped on every crack in the sidewalk each time imagining the feel of the splintered shards of your vertebrae I put Abreva in the sugary frosting of your 40th birthday cupcake I pulled minute strands of hair out of what's left on your head as you dozed on our blue sofa Sunday afternoons I changed the password to our Netflix account and didn't tell you I poked pinprick-sized holes in the seat of your favorite chinos I stayed awake all night sharing secrets with another wishing you'd overhear I threw away the withered flowers you gave me for Mother's Day two years ago I left bits of used kitty litter in the shoes you wear to work I allowed you to ask me repeatedly to let you read my recent writings staring at you each time you asked but staying silent
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I came to see the stars shine
Like silver-headed pins in the blue-black sky

I came to see rocks
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Dusty black pavement zig zagged with cracks
Browning weeds wilting by the roadside
Crumbling dull dirt that refuses to clump
Trash scattered down its length, faded and no longer trodden upon
...