Poetry by Anne Leigh Parrish

minka CC




At My Mother’s Knee
 
Soap
Towels
Comb
Soft touch, then hard
Pinch
Pull
Draw Blood
Love’s full circle, fed by rage
 
I get it
You didn’t want to marry him
Marry anyone
 
Some wear disappointment like a pearl choker with matching earrings
Some wear cruelty like a second skin
To torment is to liberate
 
Really?
 
You were lazy in yourself
Sorry later, I suppose
 
After you crippled me by stopping and starting the clock at your whim
Like a heart
That happened to be mine




Anne Leigh Parrish’s new poetry collection, If The Sky Won’t Have Me, was recently published by Unsolicited Press, and her next novel, A Summer Morning, also from Unsolicited Press, arrives in October 2023. Recent titles are an open door, a novel, and the moon won’t be dared, a poetry collection. She is the author of nine other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. www.anneleighparrish.com.