Joe’s House

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Louis Forgione

 

A bed with a frame from the 1930s,
A carpet that smelled of lemon,
A furniture set wrapped in plastic,
A pot of tomato sauce heating up on the stove,
A warm Columbus Ohio night,
A filled stomach competing with a broken heart,
A ring finger with a wedding band that used to be mirrored,
Another night without her,
Another night of disgust at an estranged daughter,
Another night of shame that the wrong person was behind the wheel,
Another night of anger at how she was cut open like a pig,
Another memory passing by of how she was never the same afterward,
Another speculation of whether she left before her time,
Another shot nerve from numbing the mind over thoughts of seeing her again,
He holds on for as long as he can for the sake of his daughter and three other children,
And the flawed man drifts to sleep.

 

 

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Louis Forgione is currently a third-year student (undergrad class of 2024) with sights set on the five-year Ed. M program offered by the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. His current goal concerning poetry is to capture the rawness of life through spare language and brevity in prose.