Poem of the Week~All At Once

Amy Barlow Liberatore, who writes at Sharp Little Pencil, wrote a wonderfully poignant poem this past week about her childhood. Amy says her mom was a lot of fun, and that she and Amy's grandma are "why I'm the sharp little pencil I am today". 

On her blog, Amy writes: 
"Wage peace. 
Sow love. 
Always stand up for the disenfranchised.
Never run out of words." 

And, luckily for us, Amy never runs out!


ALL AT ONCE

She drank to forget
But when she drank
she remembered
as though reading from
a volume of Dickens,
reciting a poem
by Gwendolyn Brooks,
exhaling a road song
by Woodie Guthrie
Slowly, no rampage,
these ramblings; recalled
in a trance of romance and
morbid, mothballed memory

all at once

Cloistered as she and I were
in our clapboard ranch house
To me, she was home
To her, this house,
this home meant a range,
a fridge, a freezer,
a coffee pot, a yard
a car, and especially
a bathroom that locked

all at once

“Back then,” as it always
started, these old stories,
“back then” was a
cumbersome load
carried by a little girl
whose mother would
disappear mysteriously
in the middle of the night
and come back weeks later
haggard but much calmer
after being committed

all at once

She told me of
late-night runs from
the landlord and the
perils of being the
only girl with an
absent mother and
a drunken father
and a brother who was
sent off to Auntie Ruth’s
All this turmoil
milling through her mind
In a gaze hazy with
absolute truth

all at once

She confessed it all
I was her eight-year-old
confidante, her committed,
codependent kid and I
maintained that role
until she died. It’s hard
being all things
to one person

all at once

© 2013 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil

Thank you, Amy for another wonderful write. And for your long-time loyalty to Poets United. We love you!