Allison Whittenberg: 5 Poems

Watching Jordan's Fall

(CW: domestic violence)

...God, I hate November
All the hope I had hoped
Against hope for Jordan.

Dad beat Jordan, to
Straighten him out, to show
Jordan, to silence him.

My brother lived until the next
Season, onto the next winter,
Very quiet like a fallen leaf.

Season's Denial

          The first year it happened, I wondered will I outgrow dreaming of the dead by night and going through the motions of duty by day?  

          The eggnog circulated, and I know what an egg is, but what is nog?  

          Fun was had, or, at least, impersonated. It’s Christmas, for Christ’s sake.  

          Ribbons undone...

          Gifts swapped...

          Festive cake knifed–someone is absent.  

          She’s cited briefly during grace, but only then: This day is about sugar plum fairies, not protoplasm.

Day Job

(CW: substance use)

After a night of therapeutic bottle and blunt passing

He wakes on earth at 5AM

In a lumpy bed

He goes to the airport in his overalls

Brandishing a handkerchief

He scrubs the thick plastic windows

With long-handled brushes

He watches the jets take off

They move hot through the endless sky

With purpose

The Shower

It’s winter.
The water runs cold
She is thinking about the blizzards
She imagined as a child
How she’d think of herself trapped
And far from home, the spring
With its gentle rain never coming,
Those summers with their nights
Of heat lightning
Court and spark...

The mind

Is

As fragile as

The dream

It dreams

Allison Whittenberg is a Philadelphia native who has a global perspective. If she wasn’t an author, she’d be a private detective or a jazz singer. She loves reading about history and true crime. Her novels include Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine, Life is Fine, Tutored and The Sane Asylum.