Who (Day 381)

who gets 

to have less 

I don’t want to 

think about 

who gets to 

have more

who stays or 

leaves who is born 

or is lost

(c) 2018, by Hannah Six

Image: William McKinley campaign poster, 

ca. 1895–1900 US Library of Congress

Silken Grip (Day 364)

When the hand lets go   the fingers 

continue to meet   forming an O of 

conspiratorial approval   a manual 

wink   and the glass tumbles to 

the carpet   the clink of ice and 

slice of lime giving voice to 

otherwise-silent sin    the street 

outside fizzes with traffic and 

surely-fascinating conversation   

if only she could hear more clearly   

and she strains her ears to make out 

the words   When the mind lets go   

thoughts continue to seep out onto 

the page   into a world embraced by 

the jumble of thrice-used plastic 

bags favored by the divorced woman

d'un certain âge who abstains from 

the silken grips of costly leather 

satchels   and the need to sustain her 

well-heeled husband’s grim-lipped 

approval   for the freedom to let go

(c) 2018, by Hannah Six

Image: Kelly bag

Wen-Cheng Liu/Wikimedia Commons

Exurban Christmas (Day 312)

The aisles are all full 

to bursting, floor to ceiling, 

side to side, the walkways, 

like arteries, narrowed 

by excess, and yet 

just a few bags in hand.

A whole lot of something, or 

a whole lot of nothing—

it barely matters in this 

tumbledown, blue-collar town, 

where the aisles are all full 

to bursting, but there’s little 
worth buying these days.

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Image: Pixabay

Decadent Elders (Day 273)

decadent elders tucked 

  away 

in black cashmere 

     ghostly 

clouds of smoke 

and silken shame 

       swirl  

excuses ugly 

in their chests none but 

the youngest 

meet the eye 

          glimmer 

of voices cherished 

      proclaim 

sparkling raised 

   to block 

the noonday sun 

     without 

that special something fun  

   you just can’t live 

so generously 

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Image: The End of Dinner, 1913, Jules-Alexandre Grün