personal stories

Uncategorized by Lee Dunn

Grown up

Kid I was when Dad got my nose showed how to take your thumb apart Oh, and the trick with the hats and cigarette butts How to worm a hook Bought a poetry book Must’ve seen my look Told me I must be a man Face the bullies Have a plan Double up that fist […]

More
Uncategorized by Lee Dunn

The road is long

In fable days I took a dare to try the mortal maze They shut the door when I went in to walk its narrow ways I felt a fool and out of school unlearned in errantry and suffered doubt and went without a thought of parentry The road is long I sing a song in […]

More
Uncategorized by Lee Dunn

No words

Looking back, I think she was afraid when I saw her truth. We had never spoken, but in the group sessions, she surprised me with split second glances and strange blushes. Then, tables turned, I made a game of trying to catch her eye. Not a single word. That’s how it goes. …and then one […]

More
Uncategorized by Lee Dunn

Puppers

We were nine. I believed everything you said. Touching a toad gave you warts. Step on a crack, you break your mother’s back. Kill a spider and it rains. We made grasshoppers spit tobacco, knew the divinity of buttercups, daisies, and dandelion chains. Such puppies in love.

More
poetry by Lee Dunn

Shamblings

I taped my mouth shut for ten years, ‘til a professional told me it was wrong, I should wean. There were pills, too, that hypnotized the disobedient sleep, then upsold themselves. On my knees, I considered cuts, and reached for a siren’s call. But here now today biding time.

More
Uncategorized by Lee Dunn

A pause for thought

The slant of the sun. The moss-green mechanic with his fat cigar, chuffing like a chimney. The little kid threesome on the gravel shoulder, fist-pumping the diesel driver. and the undetected grasshopper atop my dusty boot. How slowly I move. I’ve never been here, but I know it.

More