Freight Train
Dearest, the reason your husband
smokes like a freight train
and has bleary red eyes
is the constant tornado you live in.
It’s not the problems at work, really,
or the kids, or the car trouble, it’s
the twister life that comes out of
daily interaction with you.
I would have told you sooner but
I had to build a bomb shelter first.
I Love You
When I say I love you
it means I’m trying really really hard.
It means that I don’t know why
we can’t get pregnant.
It means that I’m tired of pretending
these damn dogs are my progeny.
It means I don’t want to get your
coffee for the nineteenth time today.
It means I feel myself wilting
in the sun.
When I say I love you
it means I’m trying really really hard.
Russ Cope is a writer from West Virginia. He’s been in food service, janitorial service, and many other jobs. His poems have appeared in Poetry Super Highway and Eternal Haunted Summer.