I try to remember the good minutes
before all of us were thrown into categories
with names that sound like a sick-joke
boot camp — but now the days bleed out
every amend we never made – every marathon
phone call with that old best friend — or ex
you want to hook up with one more time.
I told you last night how bad it’s getting –
I now consider endless drives around
the lake a social outing; how I miss concerts
and life before. You listened, but didn’t offer
much,following way too close for comfort
and safety – two words we no longer attach
any meaning to, but cling to like ticks on
lost skin in the woods.
Cathy Porter’s poetry has appeared in Plainsongs,Homestead Review,California Quarterly,Hubbub, Cottonwood, Comstock Review,and various other journals.The Dash Between Us is her latest chapbook from Finishing Line Press: A Life In The Day and Dust And Angelsappeared in 2012 and 2014. She has two chapbooks published by Dancing Girl Press in Chicago: Exit Songs (2016), and 16 Days (2019), as well as The Skin Of Uncertainty(2020) from Maverick Duck Press. Cathyhas been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She lives in Omaha, NE.