Michelle Hartman – 2 poems

Speed of dark

there is a formula for the speed of dark
a formula with variables
a wedding ring

      an alcoholic
a fist    a five-year olds face
a gun and August humidity

swirling up from Houston asphalt
if light speed is space divided by time
then dark is inner space divided by
diminishing opportunity
fear divided by loss of job
or money churned in quantum
waves accelerated by variables of heat
proximity and vodka
this is the formula

 you calculate with thought word and action

with your thin lips twisting hands supplicating ways

and the self-actualizing catalyst is

                           It’s not my fault.

I have no dowry

sheep or goats
land or title

there is no juicy portfolio
no stocks, bonds
secret Cayman account

I have little or nothing
between me and & penury
but words

and with these
I’ve made you
the desire of lovers
far and wide
until a time
of no poetry.

Michelle Hartman’s latest book is, The Lost Journal of My Second Trip to Purgatory, from Old Seventy Creek Press. The first poetic look at child abuse and its effects on adult life. Along with her poetry books, Irony and Irreverence and Disenchanted and Disgruntled, from Lamar University Press, Lost Journal is available on Amazon. She is the editor of Red River Review. Hartman holds a BS degree in Political Science, Pre-Law from Texas Wesleyan University and a Paralegal cert. from Tarrant County College.