Chasing Nightmares to Feel a Dream

She has lipstick eyes

and plastic intentions. 

The blood of her days

living on erased has

her chasing nightmares

to feel a dream.

Before 2022 she had

the right to choose

her body’s direction.

Today it’s been sharpied

into the decision of men.

No one asked her.

No one gave her the choice

to decide if a God without Jesus

or no god at all had the 

right to force her to live by

a faith or plan that had

outsourced compassion. 

©Susie Clevenger 2025

#NaPoWriMo Day 5

 

Don't Break an Aardvark's Glass

The tedium of walking on tippy toes

so the offensive won’t be offended

is not a gift I possess. 

Oh, I can appear cuddly with the obtuse,

keep my eyes silent, my face a gentle petulant,

but too often they seem to forget boorish 

will break the glass of jolly I have so patiently

kept half full. 

Ignorance should never ring the doorbell

of my dark humor, or test the shellac

on my carefully manicured mood. 

I love antiques, but have no desire

to live the crinoline politics of men

who are so fragile they succumb 

to vapors at the thought of progress.

All the cosplaying Captain Fred Waterford’s 

whine when I remind them Fred’s story

didn’t end well. 

©Susie Clevenger 2024

"We only wanted to make the world better.

 Better never means better for everyone.

 It always means worse for some."

— Fred Waterford

Captain Fred Waterford is a character

in the book, Handmaid's Tale

 by Margaret Atwood. 

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Enter the Aardvark