Katie Hampton

difficult women

are the ones who’d be

excellent men

you wouldn’t run away from

but you always knocked it down 

and ran anyway 

or learned to scuba dive

we didn’t stay up late 

stuffing our children’s stockings

(I always did it alone)

we didn’t drive those vespas 

like we always planned

or love each other 

until we were dead 

the dreams we had 

never materialized 

a decade later

and so much of us

was waiting for a day 

that never came 

I lay here between 

my husband and child 

my heart 

a solar eclipse 

of love and fear  

sometimes I’m living

hour to hour

because the thought of a whole day

makes me want to crawl beneath the covers

for a decade

she shines on my face

and her moonlight

soaks through

my body

the ecstasy

of being seen

to be wise

to grow

into someone who no longer cares

what a man thinks