local_library When the Scope of the Problem is Just Overwhelming

by Jeff Eisenbrey

Published in Issue No. 288 ~ May, 2021

I don’t

 

instead, I move.

as I’ve meant to

 

I don’t have enough hands to reassemble

what’s so long broken

 

Consider that one

whose mother used or uses

at first prescribed

the color

of the pills doesn’t matter

 

You might think:

a child is changed by the sight of mother’s bruising

Correct!

I let that change be the fracture

I cannot fix

 

We’ll see problems that are the end

 

This is the power of choice

the choice of power

to find the rationale that exfoliates

dries my nakedness

clothes me unwrinkled

 

the father

less present, thank God

because he was less than

Me? I would hire tutors, would pay for camp and music lessons

because I know how

to get a thing done

 

the father is also an outcome

—a long story— not all his fault

always perhaps inevitable

in a way, very sad,

I know

that you’re a good person because you feel something

too, but now you have a meeting

 

so don’t

account_box More About

Jeff Eisenbrey teaches and writes in the Maritime Northwest. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction work have been published by Juxtaprose, Painted Bride Quarterly, Rawboned, and other venues. Jeff earned his MFA Goddard College.