“I just don’t know how I feel
about you anymore.” The empty
in your face cuts flowers
from the bouquet of my pulse. You turn
as I trace lip
shapes in my mind, unlatch the box
of our history. Horizon fell out;
this necessity is forbidden
zones inside your wrists
you will not release. Words slam
each other inside your
dark. I remember:
I loved myself before I loved you.
Loved the music of waves, the hug my pea coat
gave as I stood on the shore in the rain. I want
to know I can again.
I will plant
seeds where and when I can.
# # #
Terri Muuss is a writer, social worker, motivational speaker, director and actor. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals including Paterson Literary Review, Apercus Quarterly, Atticus Review, Stirring, Long Island Quarterly, and Red River Review, and three anthologies, has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes in poetry. She is the author of Over Exposed (JB Stillwater, 2013) and the one-woman show, Anatomy of a Doll. Anatomy of a Doll was named “Best Theatre: Critics’ Pick of the Week” by the New York Daily News and has been performed throughout the US and Canada since 1998. As a licensed social worker, Muuss specializes in the use of the arts as a healing mechanism for trauma survivors She is married to writer Matt Pasca and her two ginger-haired boys, Rainer and Atticus were former Ellen Show “Presidential Experts.” www.terrimuuss.com

Photo credit:  Terri Malone