It Keeps Happening
Claire Scott


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& OMG I have no more
boxes of Kleenex lined up on my shelves
no more sympathy cards with purple gladiolas
                may your memories give you peace
                may time heal your sorrow
slink-stepping back
from grief’s abyss
 
people disappear trailing IV’s into the dusk
dissolving in glasses of darkness
people slowly morphine to oblivion
                no longer know the name for sausage
                or their cell phone number
some simply snatch up orange vials
that warn: overdose may be fatal
 
& swallow with a bottle of gin
no more please I can’t bear it
too many December’s on my calendar
                too many somber dates
                circled in black ink
but wait just wait a moment wait
surely the alternative is worse
 
so I sip my tea & answer the phone
                bracing for more bleak news

 
 
 

About the Author: Claire Scott is an award winning poet who has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Her work has been accepted by the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Healing Muse and Vine Leaves Literary Journal among others. Her first book of poetry, Waiting to be Called, was published in 2015.
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