The Life You Could Have: a memoir

Tag: short poem

  • I Didn’t Hear It



    when my brother stomped the, that he made,

                                                   semiconscious

    boy fresh stepped off

                                      the bus lain face down

    in the mud

                       blood puddle,

                                    but something cracked.


    Photo credit: Ranney Campbell, 2025.

  • When I Have My Own Place



    it will be so quiet
                         I will be able
    to hear three sunflowers

    in a straight glass vase

    on my dining room table
    picked up bare and painted

    blue and sanded and ash
    stained or calla

    lilies, which they pull

    like weeds, I hear
    in Australia


    Originally published by ONE ART.

    Photo credit: Ranney Campbell, 2025.

  • Still the Butterflies


    tummy half a dozen

    black swallowtail, three

    silvery blue, a mixed flutter

    galvanism fizzle a yellow in my head

    and orange and black kaleidoscope

    painted ladies clap-and-fling

    grey hairstreak

    flittered back to life

     surprised to find a smile

        each time the swarm

    white checkered skipper lift

    eights circle titillated

    wide wings

      seek a place

    to alight

    some treasure, some

    rotting gnat-laden lemons

    discovered under mother’s thin

    Photo credit: Fidel Hajj.

  • Habit

    bad for me, they say

    should give it up

    and I say, but my eyes

            swell

    and hands reach again

    my clear coat

    is coming off

    under this vigorous sun

    and send

                   a photo

    and light a smoke


    Originally published by HOOT Review

    Photo credit: Mark Thomas.

  • Sharp


    winds shifted, sky

    blue again, smoke blown

    out over the ocean

    I can see the hills

    make out the detail

    of sage and the lichen

    spreading. home,

    from my porch,

    can see clearly

    the cut lines

    of the shadows

    of the pergola, fallen


    Originally published by Third Wednesday.

    Photo credit: Victor Moragriega.

  • the desert so



    maybe it is the wet

    in my eyes

    makes me love


    Originally published in the chapbook, “the desert so.”

    Photo credit: Ranney Campbell, 2024.