No Time

Babes are finally in bed
Heaps of laundry wait patiently.
Three in diapers,
the oldest just two.
Just like triplets, always wet,
always hungry.
No wick-away disposables
invented yet.

Dinners are from scratch,
is there another way?
Not much in the way of frozen.
Convenience is what I seek.
Fresh bread baked at least
three times a week.

White shirts, one a day,
piled for my attention.
Husband has an eight hour day,
mine is close to twenty-four.
Babies at night, one or the other,
but husband has to have his sleep,
he works, you know.

No time for hair or nails.
What is a dress?
Lucky to wash my face.
No time to change,
just put on a smile.

Time for sex.  Time?
What is time?
Everything runs though my mind
but pleasure.
Have to plan tomorrow.
Was that a cry?
Put the orgasm on hold.
Seems it's always on hold.
Back to bed, husband
snores softly.

Get up, turn on the TV
and watch the test pattern.
No television past eleven but...
I am alone.  It is quiet.
Looking back on those times,
I'm sure I was on
the edge of a breakdown,
but gee, who had time?

Intangible Perception

I stare unseeing,
draped in the scenery
of stark memories
best forgotten,
skin pallored
by overwhelming grief
that tosses restraint
like thistle-down.

Vacant eyes
drop damp petals,
control abandoned
in blue-white anguish.
Chained, addicted
to panic and fear,
my life's textures
are ground to bits of gray.

The scratched surface
of my being
is forever damaged
by broken courage.
I struggle for direction,
step hesitantly towards survival,
press my control button.
Tangled threads restored...for now.

Sharon Rothenfluch Cooper

Living in Portland, Oregon, Sharon is an active member of the Friends of The Oregon Symphony, Words Of a Woman Net Society and very much a today's woman. An astrological Leo, this lady thrives on poetry and music. She has been published in 'lingerings', The Words of a Woman Net Society, Horsethief Journal, Wired Arts from Wired Hearts, Painted Poet Literary and Art Journal, Fluid Ink Press, Ophelia's Muse, Stride Magazine, Poetry Magazine, Vinland Journal, Poetry Niederngasse, Arcanum Cafe, Some Words, Poetic Reflections, Wilmington Blues, In The Eyes Of The Wild, Rustlings Of The Wind, Westlovian Gazette, Erosha Literary Journal, Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry, Creations Journal, Emerging from Twilight - Vol. 2. and Before the Last Shadow Fades, Vol. 3, both A Shadow Poetry Collection, Panda Poetry Magazine, Mi Poesias E-Zine, Battle Stars', Providers in Partnership for Kids, Swan Dive, Wicked Alice, Verse Libre, La Rosa Blanca, Scope Journal, Haiku Hut, WRITE ON!!, Book of Remembrance Poetry Anthology, Vol. 2, Muse Whispers, The Green Fuse, Peshekee River Poetry, The Circle of Addiction, Sound and Silence Magazine, Sol Magazine, Australian Poetic Society, Poetic Voices and many others.

Email: Sharon Rothenfluch Cooper

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