You told yourself it was easier

to imagine a thousand reasons

than to know any one answer.

There was glory in the theory

of having no choice.
He was your hero, more

magical than Jesus or so you

thought. He smoked Winston’s

and blew smoke rings in the air.

You thought he was invincible.
You were expecting a fairytale,

your head full of forget me nots…

You used to sit in his old ford woody

and he’d sing every song on the radio.

His pockets were stuffed with flowers

 

And once he put a tiny bird in your hand

It was a sparrow with a broken wing.

He taught you how to trust a wounded

thing, how to bring it back to life.

---

 

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is an eight-time Pushcart nominee and a four-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012, she won the Red Ochre Press Chapbook contest with her manuscript “Before I Go to Sleep”. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of online and print magazines including: The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Poets and Artists, War, Literature and the Arts and many more. She has authored numerous collections of poetry including her latest chapbook: “Things I Can’t Remember to Forget” Prolific Press 2017. She is the Assistant Editor for The Orchards Poetry Journal and according to family lore she is a direct descendant of Robert Louis Stevenson. Check out her website and connect with her on Twitter: @secretpoet