D e a d P a p e r

Poems

JOYCE DAVIDSON, a Florida resident for thirty-six years, is past president of North Florida Writers and is a member of Promoting Outstanding Writers and the First Coast Writers Association. Her poems have appeared in State Street Review, Saturday at 2, and Word Trips. She is the author of the novel, Olivia’s Favorites, published by High-Pitched Hum Publishing. A graduate of Muskingum College in Ohio and Jacksonville University, Davidson lives in Green Cove Springs with her husband Bill, a retired businessman.

JOYCE DAVIDSON

Another Unpleasant Memoir

As a child with knobby knees,
tangled hair, skinned elbows, crusted nails,
you played in dirt, did without the best of things,
longed for love,
and those bitter years you can’t forget.

That cruel void of what you could have learned,
could have done, and could have owned,
churns in the endless black hole
of your memory.

Every word you write steams
pickled in vinegar of discontent
of marinated hate
steeped in a brew of despair.

For Emily D., perhaps,
you’ll compose a scrap of verse
that speaks of gifts
about how far the sky lays its face
on the horizon.

Copyright 2008 deadpaper.org, Tim Gilmore

Jo Carlisle, contributing editor and web design