Is This Your First?
By Carol A. Smith
A simple choice between the disloyal Yes
or the honest No that stabs like an ice pick
as you brace for, How many do you have?
Option A: The ice in your chest hardens
to a blue block with jagged edges
that slice your throat as faux-faulty math
subtracts the stars that burned out too soon.
Option B: Truth bubbles up through the ice,
splashes cold water in your questioner’s face,
then falls to form undodgeable puddles
that leave you both wearing soggy shoes.
Choosing, you stand in split-second stillness,
weighing obligations to yourself and a stranger.
The hush is like that of an upstairs room
waiting to be used.
Carol A. Smith writes poems about family relationships and motherhood, as well as sociopolitical poems about racism and social justice. Her poems have appeared in many journals including Last Stanza Poetry Journal, US 1 Worksheets, Prairie Home, The Rising Phoenix Review, and Mobius. Her work has been featured by the Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County, and by Poets Against Racism & Hate USA. Smith holds an EdD from Widener University and an MFA in poetry from Arcadia University. She teaches composition at Rowan University in South Jersey, where she lives with her husband.