Contributor: Lynn Cooper

- -
Like an IV drip
trepidation slowly
trickles through me
as I pack

jeans shirts
sundry items
for another trip
back home

This time
there is no room
in my suitcase
for criticism or judgment

I'll bite my tongue
make it bleed
swallow horse pill
words of disapproval

For one week
the only way
I know
to keep peace


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Lynn Cooper is a published poet and former New Yorker, who now resides in Florida. Her poetry has appeared in print anthologies in both states, as well as online.