Zigzags
If I knew
Socrates told us
to question everything
I would have been better
equipped to tell my mother
why I disagreed with her
why I lacked her enthusiasm
for being born with curly hair
that went in every direction
off the top of my head
like a field of unruly weeds
why I was unable to hug
that hair-dyed uncle
who took the biggest pieces
of meat off his serving tray
before offering his guests
his seasoned bites of scorn
why I pointed out the bitter taste
of water coming through the pipes
even though it flowed from
the best reservoir in the country
why I wanted everyone
in our house to stop adoring
so many hot buffalo wings
and just swallow the sweet grapes
because there are
so many of them
still in the bag
promising to go bad
if they continue to be ignored
Susan Shea
Susan Shea is a retired school psychologist who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in a forest in Pennsylvania. She returned to writing poetry two years ago. Since then, her poems have been published in or are now forthcoming in Chiron Review, ONE ART, Folio Literary Journal, Passager Journal, Radix Magazine, The RavensPerch, Cloudbank, Ekstasis, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Green Silk Journal, The Write Launch, Foreshadow, The Loch Raven Review, and others. Within the last few months, one of her poems was nominated for Best of the Net by Cosmic Daffodil, and three poems were nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Umbrella Factory Magazine.
