____________ like shredded paper
at my feet, a snow drift.
__________Wake
the fuck up.
We are here. We are
gone. _______________
______We are
bone,
_____then dust,
We are
_____________ laughter
and confusion
strung
together
____________with blisters
and bluebirds,
like when I came
home
______________ from art class
at age 10
____ to the bleeding. _______
________ A pack of dogs
_____ had dug under
_________ my pet goat’s
______ barbed wire ______
fence. I used to walk
him through
_______ the neighborhood
talking to him
out loud,
fed him
___________ with a bottle.
_____________________
The pack
_________ devoured ___ part of me.
_______________ Tthat night
That was the last
time
_____ I loved _____ something
_________________
______________entirely.
_____ I learned
to put ____ the idea
of endings ____
in a drawer of secrets _________
____ like the box
_________ where I kept _______
my favorite dolls
_______ to keep them
________________________ safe,
put them
____ in the attic
before _____ ever _____ playing
with them
and never ____ found
____________________ them
again.
Cynthia Good is an award-winning author, journalist and former TV news anchor. She has written six books including Vaccinating Your Child, which won the Georgia Author of the Year award. She has launched two magazines, Atlanta Woman and the nationally distributed PINK magazine for women in business. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in journals including Free State Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Main Street Rag, Persimmon Tree, Pedestal Magazine among others. Cynthia’s new chapbook, What We Do with Our Hands, from Finishing Line Press will be published this summer.