Our children’s toy snake
lies inert in the driveway.

Although it’s almost Easter,
the Christmas lights are still up.
But I won’t mention it
because I have no right
to decorate a house
that is no longer mine.

The daybed my mother
bought us is still made up
with the JC Penney quilt
we spent an hour picking out,
along with matching curtains.
So perfect.

Hooks and empty spaces remain
where you have removed
our framed wedding photos.
The paint there is distressed
and darker where our stupid,
young faces hung all those years.
Smiling until it hurt.

 

 

 

Joan Prusky Glass is the child of a Korean immigrant and an Irish and Polish-American Detroiter. She worked for 15 years in public education. In 2011 she began a professional hiatus in order to save her soul, raise her children, write poetry, and become an educational advocate (Gifted Advocates).  She feels it important to mention that she is both a recovering Baptist and disillusioned feminist. Her poems have appeared in Haggard and Halloo, The Blue Hour, Ancient Paths, and Emprise Review, among others, and her work is forthcoming at Parable Press. Joan is currently working on an anthology of memoirs by parents of prodigies entitled “Raising Beautiful Minds.” Joan resides in Connecticut with her favorite Englishman and three children.