Phe Needham

Nights in Red Satin

I own a red robe.

 

It’s the kind of silly

satin

sexy

that other women wear when they

smoke cigarettes.

 

I’ve never worn it

 

For long.

 

I’m not the type to wear

lingerie

or bedclothes

even when I, myself,

smoke cigarettes.

 

Yet…I’ll keep it

perhaps for a while.

 

It reminds me of what

I could have been.

Supernova

There are days

and here again

there are Days

when words and thoughts

fail me.

 

Beyond the circuitry

shorting out…

 

The brush, the pencil

and even the pen

feel like foreign strangers

in my hand,

unable to communicate

with my head at all.

 

The words are garbled

or non-existent,

the images blacked out.

My thoughts are

Everywhere, racing

panicked.

 

And on these days

I wish I knew how

to draw a supernova.

An Homage to Treatment

Sitting idly in idyll

an island in the center.

The stream of life

breaks and flows around

but never overflows its banks.

 

Bucolic stupor spreads

faster than fat through flesh.

Phe Needham

Phe served in both the US Air Force and US Army between 1999 and 2015.  She was released from service as an E-6 in July 2015 but continues to work in her career field of Emergency Management as a federal civilian for the active duty Air Force.  She is also active in both the VFW and American Legion. She may be found anywhere around Boston, writing letters, poetry, essays, or journaling. 

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