melissaahowells

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The Petty Player Who Rarely Sleeps

I'd Like A Taste (The Wolf Said)

The Crow Is A Black Bird

When I Start to Bloom

I'd Like To Be Your Shirt (when you wake up in the morning)



All Beings Considered

Words Between Edward And Jane

Nothing's Sadder Than A Rose

The Great Tsunami Of Our Growing Grief written 3/2.2021--retitled 3/14/2021

After Wide Sargasso Sea ( For Those of You Readers Who Have Empathy For the First Mrs. Rochester.)

WAITING ON THE WORLD (March/February 2021 poetry)

Wild and Unraveling

What Must Be

These Hands Exist July 4 2023 rei-edited 7/12/2023

I Am The Color Of Black

The Tide of Your Lies (2019-2023)

How I Wanted Your Pearls 6/24/2023 WRITTEN DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE

Love Wants What Love Wants re-edited 5/31/023

Winter's Been Too Long.... 4/18/2023 (LONGING)

The Dreaming Life ( A Series Of Dream Vignettes)

Like A Small Street Dog Lured In By The Promise Of Meat

This Is What Mermaids Dream Of

At Night, As I Dream of Vampires Who Have No Bad Intentions

And You Will Be Called Ashes As You Leave ( from a dream)

Certainly No Bread 3/16/2022

Someone Send Out A Search Party

THE FAN , AT NIGHT, GIVES GOOD ADVICE completely re-edited, an entirely different poem

What Is The Price For Your Touch? re-editied 5/31/2023

Where Is My Bed With The Pleasing Tree -Lined View(NOW REEDITED)

Oh What Fine Physics (Before Me ,Lies) re-edtited @4/17/2023

If Prejudice Were Dumb And Could Not Speak

THE COMPANY THAT WE KEEP WITH THE ONE WITHIN

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I Turn Forward


********
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he would not touch my hand
for he was not like me

for him I was unclean
and I'd just washed my hands

pointing out differences
I could not see
not even reaching up to meet
the answer in my eyes

look
I'm right in front of you
(what is wrong here..)
you look behind me
to somewhere else
to the ghost that
I am to you

this moment of yours
doesn't even remember me
there is no light in there
of recognition
my own reflection fails
to affect

so this is indifference
this is  your prejudice
this is your denial and your ignorance
which endures beyond the human flame
which normally overcomes a heart
and makes it care
and where I fail to pass his test

he moves around me
he's stepping forward
he knows he's knocked me down
without any words
without any fists

long ago
something like this
happened at a public pool
when I was wading in to test its coolness
and the difference between its depth
and the sweltering wave
of the August air

it was there in a bathing suit
I was shocked to meet
their accusations
and their ugly lingering words
and loathsome glares

they said to me
 the water's getting dirty
they said
the water's infected, unsafe, unclean

my only friend stood in front of me shouting
at the children and their Mothers
but they were not listening

then my friends Mother appeared
pointing with indignation
accusing the children, the Mothers
and all the lifeguards
while she wrapped me in
a sun-warmed towel
around my shivering arms

"how dare you treat her like this...
she's never been in a pool before
you've bullied her
and you damn well know
she's done nothing wrong..."

I was eleven then--
now I'm fully grown
and growing old

why do I carry with me
this kind of grim
enduring patience
why then this unfaltering stance

I  will hold my head high

inside I've changed
though many of them
still
are changeless

I'm determined
to cross this Rubicon
to leave all this
and them behind me

I've turned forward
I can't walk within those sad old steps
no more.




LEGAL COPYRIGHT FOR THIS POEM 1:37pm PST 6/9/2020 TIME/DATE STAMPED
AND ALSO FOR THIS WRITER/AUTHOR/POET MELISSA A. HOWELLS
AND ALSO FOR THIS LEGALLY REGISTERED COPYRIGHTED SITE TITLE
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD

WRITTEN DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE

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