Tag Archives: relationships

Tax Day

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Columbia River bank

April Fifteen, Tax Day.
Doesn’t much matter to me, mine are pretty simple.
No investments, no dependents, one job.

On the job that day, as a matter of fact.
Working the southbound toll booth
where traffic comes off the bridge that crosses
the mighty Columbia.

A truck has stalled somewhere on the span.
A state police car passes northbound and,
several minutes later, returns.
I flag it through; no toll for State vehicles.
It stops anyway.

“You’re Margaret, right?” the trooper asks.
Well, not really… that’s my first name,
but I go by my middle name.
My driver’s license, however,
would show Margaret.

The trooper, who apparently has run my license plate,
invites me for coffee when my shift ends.
I accept.

April Fifteen, seventeen years later.
That’s the day our divorce papers go through.
Like many other folks I know,
I do not like Tax Day.

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge: Anniversary

If and When

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Day Six of NaPoWriMo. The prompt:

Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem of the possible… not on what has happened, or what will happen, but on what might happen if the conditions are right. Today, write a poem that emphasizes the power of “if,” of the woulds and coulds and shoulds of the world.

If that’s what you want, I guess I could do that:

oceanside

If and When

If
you got to work in the early morning and began wondering what time I would rise from bed and what I might make for breakfast and whether I preferred my eggs scrambled or poached and did I sit at the kitchen table with the newspaper as I ate or maybe on the porch swing so I could smell the spring flowers,

would you call me and ask?

If
I wondered what you were thinking as you gazed silently out the car window on those hot summer days when we drove through the valley with the fields full of big round hay bales that remind me of cinnamon rolls,

would you tell me when I asked?

If
we walked together along the beach in the waning hours of a warm autumn day and spoke of our dreams and hopes and fears and those silly notions that pop into our minds sometimes or the songs that get stuck in our head all day or what we like most about Sunday mornings,

what might happen then?

When
winter comes, perhaps we can sit at home before a warm hearth, enjoying one another’s company, comfortable in our answers,

no questions asked.

Invisible

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tracks

You didn’t see me.
You watched my reflection
turn in a direction
you chose not to see.

You didn’t hear me.
You thought I was sleeping.
In fact, I was weeping.
You chose not to hear.

You didn’t touch me.
You thought I might crumble.
You thought you might stumble.
You chose not to feel.

You didn’t miss me.
You thought I had left you,
came not to my rescue.
You chose to move on.

I vow to be seen,
and heard and respected;
my path self-selected;
invisible no more.

dVerse Poetics: Invisible

Mirror rorriM

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mirror3

Warning:
objects in mirror may be
closer than they appear

Do not get too close.
If you get too close, it will hurt,
most likely.

Beware of imagining you are
closer than you are.
Closeness could just be an appearance
perpetrated by the object in the mirror.

Do not look too closely at the
object in the mirror.
You may not like what appears.

Do not objectify what you see in the mirror.
Others – even some who appear close to you –
will gladly do that for you.

Do not mirror others
just to keep up appearances.

Look beyond appearances
and you may find yourself
getting closer.

And finally:
Reflect less on what’s behind you and
focus more on what’s ahead.
You won’t want to miss out on any
promising new vistas.

NOTE: Please refer to Operator’s Manual
for additional warnings in the section titled
Potential Hazards of Roadside Attractions &
One Night Stands.

NaPoWriMo Challenge, Day 25: “write a poem that takes the form of a warning label . . . for yourself!”