
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