Finally Grateful for Being Locked Outside

a poem about something some writers have in common

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

One Hundred Days of Gratitude. Forty-eight.

Nine or ten or maybe a baby thirteen
a brother breaks glass
a sister starts to scream
just couldn’t bear the burden
of being locked outside only able to look in
front door glass a little too thin
so knuckles still covered in a constellation
of little sliver scars.

Always coming from So Far.
Always the New Kid
new school, old jokes and hopes
new tricks, traps, cools and fools

never quite a part of
maybe the start of
the chameleon
little brother now older and undercover now
sitting at the bar alone.
Less hair. Still no home.

Stuck Outside Again.

This time taking the time
to see how much easier it is to look at things from far away
see the bigger picture
come up with the words to pray.