local_library Pending Demolition

by Linda Scheller

Published in Issue No. 284 ~ January, 2021

Because quitting summons angry ghosts,

only escape dispels them. Red childhood

ransomed by charity, his cellular remains

return to the cold water flat where need

originated, now brittle with rust. Thin

wisdom was the starting gun fired from

elderly mouths, dodged in youth. Flight

demands sacrifice and winnows regret.

 

That he could have conformed, held

in society’s arms, never occurred. No

matter. The dreams that melt in spoons

enter resplendent and leave splintered.

account_box More About

Linda Scheller is a poet, teacher, and radio programmer whose writing has appeared in Notre Dame Review, Poem, West Trade Review, Slipstream, The American Journal of Poetry, and Lockdown Literature, among many others, with new work forthcoming in Nebo and Canary. In 2017, FutureCycle Press published her book Fierce Light, a collection of persona poetry in the imagined voices of 36 historic women.