Susanne Thomas reads, writes, parents, and teaches from the wild and windy west in Wyoming. Besides her five kids and husband, she loves fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, poetry, children’s books, mythology, science, coffee, and puns. And socks. She really loves socks. That’s a lot of things to love, but luckily, there’s a lot of love in the world.

When you try to be an island

My face grows hot
and my ears tingle
as I watch your jaw tighten
with the stress of holding everything
 
Alone, using your hands
as if there were eight of them
 
But there is one of you
and also one of me
so let me come to your island
in a boat filled with us
 
I can throw you a line
and hold something for you
so that your jaw can relax
and my face can cool down

My Sister is a Bitch

I’d apologize for my language
but this isn’t anything she doesn’t know
 
She’s a dick
She won’t call you on your birthday
even if facebook reminds her
that it’s the day
 
And if you call her she
lets it go to voice mail
and texts you back
“What?”
Or
“Why are you calling me, freak?”
 
And so, she forces me to text
when she knows I hate texting
I have too many words for that medium
 
If I were to show up
on her doorstep
bedraggled
sobbing
with my five urchins in tow
(her words)
she’d put us up for a night
without hesitation
 
But our talk in the morning would be
“What’s your plan, now? Cause you can’t stay here.”
Because we’re a lot
and she is old.
 
She would have me draw
a picture of her sorry ass
as long as it was funny and skinny and pretty but with horns
 
As if I can draw
She knows I can’t draw
because that’s one of her talents
and she doesn’t share
But she’ll tell me too anyway
because she’s a bitch
 
You’ve never heard
anyone curse more
outside of stereotypical sailors
in R rated movies
that are supposed to be street wise
in the same way she was born to be
 
She’s an ass
She’ll ask how you’re doing
after you have a baby
and laugh when you burst out crying
and make you laugh
by telling you
that you’re making her uncomfortable
and that’ll hurt because you just had a baby
But she doesn’t care
 
She moves away, far away
farther each time
just to make it harder
to see her
 
And when she does visit
she’ll make your kids
and even your dog
that hates everyone
love her more
than they love you
 
How about
she inspires terrible language
in the mouth and words
of a person who rarely uses
those kinds of phrases