It Doesn’t Add Up

J Perry Marlowe· Poetry

Mar 28

4.8 earthquake, you weren’t here for

2.6 aftershock, you were too numb to feel

1 partial solar eclipse, you’ve already kept me in the dark

9 years of sickness (thank you for doing the dishes)

6 Satsuma jars filled with dead dogs.

2 separate bedrooms

1 person crying all night while the other snores

34 years married

12 years unloved

3 lives shattered

2 halves of an adult child, your half and mine

1 big lie

1 home for sale

1 family to the rescue

1 whispered secret

zero remorse

1 divorce

Because we never amounted to much.

J Perry Marlowe is a writer and poet who grew up in New York City and now resides in Connecticut

The Hutch