My life is heavy like hot creamer
stirred, bringing up the wrong flavours
at the bottom of a cup of stale coffee
dark
I dream yesterday’s nightmares
Momma chasing me with a knife
Daddy issues of abandonment
jumping a raggedy broom
but I’m here, despite nightmares
standing on solid
oak wood floors
I eat every day at a kitchen table made from mahogany
I like breakfast for dinner
shrimp and corn grits cooked on the stove
with Slap Ya Mama seasoning
Ironic
I wouldn’t dare. That’s why I’m still here.
My life is heavy like the hot flash that soaks my bed at 3am
and I’m sweating stuff I cannot change
Momma’s mind
Daddy’s abandonment
A marriage stitched at the seams
so I get up midway till morn
and just change the sheets
sit at the kitchen table and drink dark roast coffee

Tina Bethea Ray is a poet whose work has appeared in The Blotter Magazine, Wingless Journal, and River Mouth Review. Tina’s work is forthcoming in Black Lawrence Press and other outlets. Bethea Ray lives in North Carolina.