Back then, they let us sift through broken glass
Jean Janicke
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and called it arts and crafts. Blue meant midnight
gravel crunch under pick-up truck tires. Swirls could be
wet sand drizzled on a sandcastle before waves washed
the turrets away. Grey lines like pencil stripes of witch-broom
bare branches guarding the post office. Brown, the bayou
when it overflowed and we were warned to watch out
for water moccasins. Red, the house across the street
painted like a barn to say I’m sorry I broke your jaw.
Green, the tidy tamed lush lawn skirting the sidewalk
lined with guns for when his wife got back from tennis.
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Jean Janicke is a writer and dancer based in Washington, D.C. She enjoys reading and going for walks with friends. Her work has appeared in Yellow Arrow Journal, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, and Passionfruit Review.
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Posted in Kaleidoscopes, Sep '25 and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Poetry