“At the Monsters Ball” © Edward Michael Supranowicz

 

She was a Soldier

before age two,
before she walked or wore
her first pair of shoes. She
held down the fort when

daddy left home. He was
the type of man, that liked to
roam. She soldiered on through
her mother’s drunken nights,

when dear old mom knocked
out her lights. Mopped up her
vomit on the kitchen floor. Home
was a place she called

war. She didn’t have ribbons
and satin dresses. Her mouth,
filled with abscesses. She wore
thrift-shop clothes, moth-eaten

ones, with quarter-sized
holes. She dropped out of
school to get a job. Not a day
goes by that she doesn’t

sob. But she holds her
head up high because she
has a new home made of
paper. She calls a poem.

 

Sandra Wyllie has been writing poetry for the last twelve years. She has been inspired by two great poets, Anne Sexton and Charles Bukowski. She also enjoys nature, singing, and photography. Sandra Wyllie has been published several times in Ibbetson Street Magazine and Oddball Magazine. She has self-published many of her own on Amazon under Sandra L. Wyllie. She has her own YouTube channel under the name Sandra Lee Wyllie, where she talks about mental health.

Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, The Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet who has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times.