Primal
she never could quite understand
why he feared his own death
so intently;
her greatest dreads were disneyland,
rain at sea, and music
in a minor key
———-
Awakened
I still remember the day
My young son discovered that
War has rules.
I flinched at the sound of my own words
As I saw in his eyes the cheap chessboard pieces,
Waiting on their tidy squares. I clarified, but
The indignation flared for weeks in his mind,
Like some Geneva-banned gas.
My apology seemed crass
———-
Poems © Hayley Gibbons
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