Ramshackle Review

no. 190
by Regina Green


two things i want from you, two things that rely on your kindness to me.
i need shoes- and a place to stay for the night.
you might say why? you might say, i don't have any shoes to give you. you
might say, you can have anything you want. and then, i might cry.

there is a natural tendency for me to elaborate where no elaboration is needed. you can see
me as i am, fearful of the night, dreading every day. the bruises fade but not the hurt. it's just
the way it is. i am stellar, i am cross, i am none of it at all. and you... you are eloquent and
need a hand to hold. perhaps i am here for that reason.

i have forgotten to be sad for just a moment. you did this. but there is no such thing
as a bird who flies free. sooner or later, we all have to come down to earth.
our wings are heavy with the idea of migration. there is never home,
never a place to put your foot down and just rest.

but you and me- we are circular and diagonal and meet somehow in the middle. you
make strange noises when you sleep and i want to wake you but when do you
ever get to sleep like this? when do i ever get to watch you as if you were more
than just the uphill climb for me?

thank you for the use of your bed, the extra pair of shoes. i am hungry too, but that's for another day.
rest, love, and everything will be as it was before i came into the picture. remember the way i walked out of your life,
not the way i came in. you'd be doing me the biggest favor.






Regina Green is happily published in some very fine on-line literary magazines, including Fair Trade Journal, Asphodel Madness, Sparkbright, Escape Into Life, A Little Poetry, Cahoots and Lit Up Magazine. For the month of April 2010 she was the featured poet at Contemporary American Voices. She has  published poems in burning houses, the fine line, Full of Crow, nibble and has participated in three collaborative Lulu press publications: Spiraling, Spiraling Nature and Spiraling Thrice. She is a therapist living and working in Marietta, GA and writes poetry every day. You can find her at: redbirdchronicles.blogspot.com or at her daily journal: reginaclarejane.livejournal.com.