Winnowed

Don't make a pregnant woman peer:
lips, fingers gnarled...
Uptight with future tantrums,
               pubescent prospects 
                           bait her rousing yell, 
when babe's crooked finger, 
cedes a fated squeeze of steeled 
                 flint.

 those bathtub squirt guns litter a grime, and crusty tile.

his prison walls shower lime, squeezed bitter
on her sliver-cut, painted fingers prepped
to visit vestiges of childhood,
              puerile sprinklers, 
                              in the Yard, Court of Weary
memories baked into lime-frosted cupcakes, 
shared by winnowed friends, innate
                   Inmates.

She sees, and bites her gnarled, teary lip... uptight.

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Linda Jaye Bonafield has been published in Five Poetry Magazine, Scarlet Leaf Review, and forthcoming in Bluestem Magazine and Panoply. She has two bachelor degrees in Communication-Journalism, and Spanish from The College of Charleston, SC. More of her work is available at: moothalo.wordpress.com

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