Residing Effects

Raymond Niemi

Lasting effects of
backhands that straightened
dog her even after years.

He at arm's end,
whose fastest arc met jaw,
sent head on tangent,
parabola of a lob,
left on a sled of ills
screw-top bottles brought.

In his last few days,
eyes amid pillow ends,
ceaseless twitch of fingertips,
arm mass of his prime a mound at gut;
she couldn't choose, to cringe or glare.
Delirium barbs rocked her backward.

New in space and time,
having traced letter's score in stone,
she hears ghost whispers with
command magic, judgements,
orders, lines for crippled
players from mad

caster mouthing...
She ducks
shot and throb
of expired threats, not seen
from a squall's far side,
a last spin of air.

---

Raymond Niemi writes: "I have lived in the Tampa Bay area for the last twenty years. Parts of the surroundings have found their way into a number of the poems. I wrote poetry in school and started again about a year ago. I spend most of my time writing, critiquing and editing what other's author and visiting sites and zines to see what's being written. I enjoy seeing the variety of style in the poems submitted to a monthly contest I judge at QuietPoly Writer's Magazine. In a half century, I've learned aging isn't so bad but faulty health and disability is."