She's Running Late again

Tom waits in his rocking chair

For his kid to come home

The prison lines up his back

No vertebrae untouched

The white linen shirt superimposed on his

Sallow, patchy skin

Is not enough to grant his surrender 

To the mahogany-stained cage

That swallows and sways through light and dark

Claire, his wife, she sits beside

While Tom’s desires roam

The umber sandals that grasp Claire’s feet

Scrape the beige concrete

As she rocks

Allowing her body to sink

And permitting the fibers of her navy gown 

To meet the rigid seat

Her head turns slowly

(It’s in no rush)

To catch her husband’s pallid face

Her gaze is one of self-pity

Not perplexity

Unlike the way Tom stalks the nickel asphalt

Bound by nothing but his wants:

To hear his daughter’s giggle

When she takes her toys and tinkers;

To help her with her tiny tantrums

And hug her when she whimpers

The fine, honey blonde strands

That used to top his daughter’s head

Would fall across her rosy cheeks

As she stacked the colored blocks

One by one

But the tower always crumbled

And her eyes always welled

Making her pupils dilate to the size of dimes

As her skinny lips trembled

His daughter, Alice, left for school

About thirty years ago

Tom waited to greet her at 3

His favorite time, although 

For Tom, the day horror struck was much like now

But he is not scared

Because he has nothing to fear

If nothing is lost

Yet

Unlike thirty years ago

That day, a man had come around

Trying to play his game

And Alice joined in on the fun

What’s left is just her name.

Now, something broods with endless craving

Tom’s mind its meal of choice

And since it feasts, Tom still thinks that

He’ll get to hear her voice

As the bitter breeze scratches Tom’s face

And the Sun begins to set

His voice rings of his only strain:

“She’s running late, again.”

Claire knows her daughter’s gone and that

Her husband’s overthrown

So Tom rots in his rocking chair

But Claire, she sits alone.

About the Author

Ava Martyn is a freshman Exploratory Studies major with a heavy interest in all forms of art. Ava hopes to one day publish Young Adult fiction novels and share her creations with the world.