you think time stops because you figure something out
like how your ex bf sings for tiny women & since you’re tall
his love for you was never true
despite what he swore, through crocodile tears, as he
pinned you to the wall
or later, at the window with a wide-eyed baby in your arms,
the city’s midnight bones tease the idea . . . men build everything you see—
phone poles, streets, lights, bridges, because you—women—do this,
this child
& that these revelations stop time
insight only hits the pause button, then you go on wondering what’s going to happen next
a bright light in a sky of others
needing a pattern only you can see
Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash
Anne Leigh Parrish
Award-winning writer Anne Leigh Parrish’s next novel, an open door, will be published in October 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Recent titles from Unsolicited Press are the moon won’t be dared, a poetry collection, October 2021, and a winter night, a novel, released in March 2021. She is the author of seven other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. Find her online at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Instagram, Linked In, and Goodreads.
