marlene kelly
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January 2016 Winner of the Goodreads Poetry Contest We will always be here, you said. This town and you and the rusty moon Under the browned trees and the night sky. The permanence, a brick house, Built to withstand earthquakes and silent explosions. Inside I am never the same. It’s a smack in the face…
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Where are you already? I’ve been waiting for years Since you left the car at Red Rocks No admission for you. Only me. I thought you would find me again. You always did. Climbing fences and forging a new path. But you didn’t show up, and a part of me stayed. Sleeping in a row…
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Before typing your name in the search bar, I imagined you Bukowski. Dark struggle writing in a stupor. Facebook reveals a gray-haired suburbanite blowing bubbles with your daughter. I am a lobster shell cracked open and empty. The memory of your handprints on my neck. Hands that I once loved. You are smiling on the…
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I am dressed for an evening on the beach, a cozy new Marc Jacobs sweater in a sober oatmeal with jeans, unlike the slinky, sleeveless crowd filling the banquet hall homecoming and toasting the birth of our nation’s independence before the fireworks. When you approach, the world is no longer a static neutral television set.…
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“Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.” -James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty This is a movie for the hopeful. The people who see life’s unending potential. Those who believe in coincidence. Romantics who, against all odds, are not afraid to pursue their dreams. Just as water will boil when too close to the flame,…
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I dreamed of a love I thought I had forgotten. He showed me his open hands and I fell into his arms. Like water without a pot, I could not be contained. When we started walking backwards, it seemed like a fun kind of game at first, a new perspective on the shape of things…
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A shadow walked through the branded lady’s door. Dismantled and disfigured, Heavy beard and zipped-up coat on a summer day In a line of blue badges, He spotted the woman from his past. Venti green iced tea in her hand, Heartbeat strong and unfazed, No longer the girl pregnant with possibility. So easily disarmed and…
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There are some things time cannot change. You happen to be one of them. You are the shark circling the place where the riptide’s current ends. I used to believe the end of you would be the end of me. Your scars were mine to carry. This curse that curses us both. You are unresolved,…
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There’s a space inside that unhinges when I’m asleep. Where all my unresolved moments, suppressed feelings and unthinkable thoughts announce themselves in the dark, always in the quiet. The gathered residue hangs humid in the air long after the day has, reminding me of life left unfinished. In the place that’s called a dream, I…
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Sleepless, Under eye circled gruffness. Emotions unconfessed Misdirected hurt suppressed. The darkness I’ve seen in men. The shadow leads, Anger feeds Hard, fast breathing Strained neck seething. The sorrow I’ve seen in men. Whether joy or pain, The intensity is the same, Withheld when awake, But the snore, a roar. I mistake the darkness of…
Let It Bespoken 