Two Poems by Alyssa Dean

Lead Poisoning

 

I wasn’t fed love from a silver spoon growing up,

because our spoon was made of lead.

It was filled with heaping piles of love.

You could gorge yourself on all the love.

But there was always that underlining taste:

trace amounts of poison from the spoon

you lick off your lips so you can savor

the taste of familial love.

Tastes like the sweetest confection,

made just for you.

But we all know sugar is addictive.

Maybe that’s why my whole family is diabetic.

Still, it was wonderful when you indulged –

left you glowing and flushed with warmth,

but that fire grew too hot.

It was no longer a gentle warmth,

but a fire inside you;

a fever taking hold – angry.

The love doesn’t sit well in your stomach anymore,

it ACHES. So, you try to fight it,

the fatigue from the poison

making it hard.

But you fight and fight,

you refuse the spoon.

You fight for so long you forget the taste of love.

So, when your family holds the spoon out for you,

you eye it hungrily,

your mouth watering.

You yearn for the taste of love again.

You start to think,

“Maybe it wasn’t even that bad.

I was just being dramatic.

I don’t remember it hurting all that much.”

You know the funny thing about lead poisoning?

It can make you forgetful.

So, when your family says to open wide,

you do so.

The spoon lands gently in your mouth.

Once again, you sigh with contentment

as you swallow more love – more poison.

You go through the agony again and again,

but at least you’ll die loved, right?

 

 

Rosso Dolce & Moscato d’Atsi

 

Southerners really do

love sweet red wines

because kids love sweet things

and the South is known for

the highest teen pregnancy rates

in the USA.

That makes for children craving

Kool-Aid and Capri Sun.

It’s just that we are adults now

and we drink wine to feel

more mature, more adult.

We drink our Stella Rosa reds,

That were once Welch’s grape juice.

Sparkling apple ciders,

now replaced with Cupcake moscatos,

because we never really grew up

or maybe we really never got to.

Babies having babies

means they’ll never lose

their baby teeth

or a sweet tooth.

Alyssa Dean is a graduate of Arkansas State University, where she was awarded a BA in Creative Media Production. She has previously been published in Soul Poetry, Prose, & Art Magazine and World Insane.