Thank goodness they had gone.

 

 

Thank goodness they had gone.  She had never wanted them here in the first place.  She certainly didn’t invite them as she had never wanted to see them again for the rest of her life.  How had her parents even found her? She had left them behind years ago and thought she had left no trace for them to follow.

Gretchen picked up the tattered pieces of herself that their surprise visit had ripped from her with gnarled claws and gnashing teeth.  It had taken years to build herself up after an entire childhood of their abuses.  She thought she was past that part of her life and could no longer be hurt by them.  But it seems her self-esteem is still tenuous at best. She would heal, she promised herself, after all she had come so far and they didn’t own her anymore.

And, they were gone.  Gretchen heaved a sigh of relief and took a deep calming breath to center herself.  She could swear she could still smell them; that somehow evil had a stench and it had somehow lingered.  She might think about moving again later, but for now she set about cleaning…cleaning her apartment and herself to be rid of them again.  Gretchen turned the music up loud to drown out their voices in her head that she thought had been banished.  She cleaned and she sang and as the music filled her she started to feel better.

~Melanie Thomason

02/08/2020

patchwork girl (haiku)

sins of her father

black swatches and blue ribbons

of mother’s neglect

she’s a patchwork girl

pieces stitched together by

vivid crimson thread

~Melanie Thomason

Reblog in honor of Blue Monday

escape

her family

lacking humanity

embraced their insanity

“loved” with brutality

made home a monstrosity

hell—

or at least in the vicinity

she had to get away

or be lost in their depravity

◊

baptized by poetry

words strengthened her immunity

to escape her biology

to leave them in her history

a change in geography

gave her new opportunity

to make a new reality

and write her own story

◊

~Melanie Thomason

Anniversary Gift

with an excited gleam in his eyes

he hands her a package

silently she opens to find

a fantasy of silk and lace

sea-foam green and barely there

he directs her to undress and put it on

wordlessly she complies

he observes as silk slides across young, pert flesh

he commands her to model it for him

to move with the music

she complies as he watches with hungry eyes

brusquely he pulls it off and tosses it carelessly to the floor

 pushing her roughly to the bed

he can’t be bothered with undressing

he just takes what he wants from behind

when he is done he notices the delicate green silk crumpled under his boot

he tosses it to her and says

“Wash that and re-wrap it before your mom gets home.”

—

~Melanie Thomason

a reblog, this poem is in my 2nd book of poetry.

Moonpies & Naugahyde

which is available in full color, black and white or on Kindle.

prove it

in 1985

in Jackson, Mississippi

in a shit brown ’69 Buick

in the driveway of my grandparent’s home

we sat silently

each for our own reasons

 

my mom sat in the front passenger’s seat waiting

clinging to the bouquet of flowers that somehow made it all ok

baby sister sat in the back seat beside me

quiet for once but only cause she didn’t know what was going on

dad sat seething in the driver’s seat

waiting for me to break the silence

to respond to their seemingly simple announcement and a question

They were getting back together

we were moving back home

and all he wanted to know was, “Isn’t that great, Melanie?”

They didn’t expect my shock, my hesitation

They didn’t know my horror or my ultimate resignation

that the brief respite had ended, as i should have know it would

when he repeated his question with that edge in his voice

I quickly mumbled “yeah”

but the damage had been done

“Don’t you love our daddy, girl?”

“Yes sir.”

“I don’t believe you, guess you’re gonna have to prove it.”

~Melanie Thomason

 

Shameless

Yes…I’m promoting my book.

No…I don’t mind if you promote it too! 😉

Go ahead and blog about it, tweet it and share it on facebook 🙂

You could even read it and write a review if you’re game 😀

 

My second collection of poetry, Moonpies & Naugahyde: A Childhood Survived,  is available on Amazon. Fabulous watercolor paintings by Georgiann Carlson accompany my poems throughout, creating a book I am extremely proud of!

 

3 options available now on Amazon:

1-Full Color Edition: Watercolor Illustrations presented in Full Color

This is the way this collection is meant to be experienced!

2-Black & White Edition: Watercolor Illustrations presented in Greyscale

3-Ebook for your Kindle, iPad, etc.

↓

→ Just click on this link!!←

↑

---

OH and you can also get my first book, Spectrum: Watercolored Words

just click here!

a coffee can and a box of…

Beth kept her hopes and her dreams in an old coffee can

secreted away in the back of the pantry

it was the only  place for them

she daren’t keep them in her head

for fear they might just slip out of her mouth

no, that would not do at all

they wouldn’t tolerate any such nonsense

’cause her dreams weren’t their dreams

so she just had to keep them safe for now

and at least, there in the can,

they wouldn’t be crushed or forgotten

•

Beth kept her money in a tampon box

in plain view in the bathroom cabinet

the one place she knew for sure it would never be found

(he would never touch them and she was past that time in her life)

spare change mostly, left over from running errands

some weeks there wasn’t a nickle unaccounted for

occasionally she was able to squirrel away a dollar

still her “get-the-hell-out-of-here” fund was slow growing

it had taken years but she finally had enough (not a lot but enough)

and she was excited to be going

she would live her own life and never look back

•

Beth knew

there was no hope of ever pleasing her

and he would never STOP

that DNA wasn’t everything

and courage wasn’t genetic

so with all her “crazy thoughts” in her head

a backbone and her “attitude” firmly in place

she left with nothing

except a coffee can

and a box of tampons.

~Melanie Thomason

 

Moonpies & Naugahyde: A Childhood Survived

I’m happy to announce my second collection of poetry, Moonpies & Naugahyde: A Childhood Survived,  is now available!!

Fabulous watercolor paintings by Georgiann Carlson accompany my poems throughout, creating a book I am extremely proud of!

Since October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month, I can think of no better time to release it.

 

 

3 options available now on Amazon:

Note the 3 “versions” are not all linking up on Amazon correctly so I am providing the individual links below each option 🙂

1-Full Color Edition: Watercolor Illustrations presented in Full Color

This is the way this collection is meant to be experienced!

Get it here!

2-Black & White Edition: Watercolor Illustrations presented in Greyscale

(Producing the book in full color made it a little pricey so offering this B&W option)

here

3-Ebook for your Kindle, iPad, etc.

here