POETRY... Shuddered Up in a Strange Timeby Steven Minchin
there was a time when everyone
had taken a step beyond strange
and settled into being unsettling
terrifying and given over to shaking
I stayed away shuddered and stayed there
in away it's safe
and over time barricades settled there
sunken and given over to depth
a step below set in place
they settled in and took to leaving
shifting everyone to the other side of strange
While I stayed away safe there in a way...
Steven Minchin has studied at The Museum of Modern Art. He has published over 75 poems in Mad Swirl, Right Hand Pointing, Crack the Spine, Short, Fast and Deadly and numerous other publications.
spider up her thigh in the dimly lit room
held down, stared down
embers of the abyss snap around her
My father sexually abused me.
When I got married,
I hyphenated my name.
No one questioned it at the time.
But in the middle of my parents’ late divorce,
everyone wants to know about names.
Nietzsche warned us not to look
long into the abyss, or it will look long
into us.
It was finally
his home until
abruptly
his mind flashed
all the times he had entered a
boy
i was depressed,
and i wanted
to take a
walk;
you said you'd join me—
didn't mean i wanted
netflix and chill,
it happened before words came
to tell me how to feel about it
newly connected neurons torn apart
or perverted—
forever firing blanks into the microbiological air
As a child
The lessons taught
Can bring a pain never thought.
The lessons on trust
And heartache
Sear the soul.