Codependency

 

Your words sound like my grandmother’s now

she speaks with her dead voice from your vocal cords

 

the sharp vowels try to pin my conscience

strong consonants devalue my power

the words themselves leak resin—

 

wife and children—escape her teeth

trying to catch me she cannot understand

I don’t want either

 

Her pyramid-scheme

of love is ancient. She drives to me

 

with prayer and I turn her away with fire.


John Kucera was educated at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in Silver Blade Magazine and New Reader Magazine. He currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.