poetry on mamazine:

To Alecia at Four Weeks
by Joan A. Monheit

For Sasha on Her Fifteenth Birthday
by Joan A. Monheit

Dark Side
by DeAnna Jones

The shadow
by DeAnna Jones

Toughen Up
by Robin Mullery

track two (night dream)
by Judy Halebsky

On the Coast
by Judy Halebsky

Home Schooling
by Elsie Whitlow Feliz

Dream World
by Madeline Sharples

Black Bomber
by Madeline Sharples


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POETRY

Dark Side
by DeAnna Jones

I say I can't imagine it but I can,
otherwise it wouldn't be so horrible,
all those crimes against children,
mothers drowning their babies in bathwater,
strangling them with laundry wire,
driving off leaving them alone
trapped in a crib or hot vacant rooms,
left in closets or parked cars, windows
barely cracked, or not cracked at all.

I say I can't imagine it and what I mean is I do.
I sit on my couch after my son has fallen asleep
and think of driving to the store
just down the street, just to pick up
ice cream or bread.
I'd know how long he'd be asleep.
I could be back. I could be alone.
I could walk into that grocery air,
florescent light washing me out,
up and down through the aisles,
absent-minded, slow, biding my time
over vegetable cans, soup, pre-packaged
pasta dinners.

I might even stand in line
staring off into space until the teller says,
Miss,
and I hear,
Mommy,
a snag in the dream, tiny fingers pulling
at my shorts and slipping around my knee,
nothing there when I look but space.

DeAnna Jones grew up in the Philippine Islands as the daughter of missionaries. She taught secondary level English and Language Arts for nine years. She was the Writing Consultant for the Carrollton Farmers-Branch ISD and now privately runs outside writing workshops for those interested in finding their voice and being part of a writing collective. Her work has appeared in IIlya's Honey, Spillway, Rattle, Descant, Literary Mama, and others. She currently lives in Frisco, Texas with her husband and two sons, Zachariah and Connor.

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