How Far Is Far When I Can’t Get Past Here

the stars are all ash

bit coins drank all the water

and free costs too much   

    

There’s little in the frig,

only a bottle of rage 

because the last peach

on the tree only lasted a day.

misogyny’s knack

for division and attack

replays same music

As a woman I don’t trust

the bats in his belfry 

don’t know my name,

because I’ve never played nice

or danced under a man’s thumb. 

so I question here

with my eyes focused there

plotting my escape

©Susie Clevenger 2025

 Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Kindred

Resilience of a Sparrow

There are some dreams

that hang in the mind

like rotted meat, foul

yellowed voices void 

of mercy. 

I woke up this morning

chewing on last night’s

Shakespearean

play of a dystopian king,

and pondered if there

was a toothbrush for the mind.

Growling my mood through

the early morning shadows

I found myself at my front door

staring out at the rarity of southern snow.

The white anomaly chastised my spirit

with wonder, and made me see

how the smallest sparrows were

not hindered by the powdered chill

assaulting their wings. 

Providence (Mother God or Sister Resilience)

whispered, “You know the fate of kings. 

You’ve walked quicksand before, and rose

when it tried to own your feet. 

There have always been tyrants.

For every brick placed on your chest

you’ve found the strength to break

through their mortar.” 

 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Giovanni's Room

It's Lonely in the Birdhouse

 I bought this glass house

thinking exposure would bring connection. 

In this curtainless cube

the traffic outside my window

is much like a flock of birds

feeding on the view, but never

knocking on the door to deliver a voice.

Surely a doll in a box will at least

bring the curious, perhaps a single person

who would want to know if there is

human flesh on the arm that waves,

but GPS doesn’t allow veering

from programmed directions. 

Is time still real? Is it selfish

to feel broken enough to cry, 

or wish for a pen so I could

imagine myself through poetry?

I’ve lived long enough to reach

the future…It’s so much colder since

caring about one another became obsolete. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

“The question is not whether intelligent

 machines can have any emotions,

 but whether machines can be intelligent without any emotions.”

—Marvin Minsky, 1986

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Klara and the Sun