When I was little the bed or couch
Was an island above a dangerous sea
Of monsters
You couldn’t touch the floor
Now my son plays the same game
We snuggle in safety with my dog
On my king sized bed
Where both kids and two dogs
used to sleep with me
Just beyond danger’s reach
I want to get my daughter
And my friends
And stay like this
While the world spins along
Full of terrors
Guns and knives
Disease and war
Maybe here
Under pink quilts
Beside a curtain of white lace hearts
We’ll be safe

– FLB

***

there’s a white haze
blanketing the trees our house my mood
a terrible white haze
thick like cotton
but not as soft
and grainy like sand
without the warmth
my dog gallops through it
licking and panting,
drinking in the opaque air
my husband surfs it
to turn his pain into thrill,
even my children enjoy the haze,
staring and pointing
as if it were a smiling clown
pulling snowy rabbits and silk birds
out of an ivory top hat
but the haze tricks me
it taunts
turns it’s ghostly face towards me
bares sharp, bleached fangs
and sucks me inside
where i disappear

– LB