Flush Left | Yvonne Higgins Leach | 02 04 23

Writing Against

I have no words. 
Yes, my neighbor displays elephant tusks
on his mantle, and a stuffed cougar in his basement. 
Brags about his next trophy hunting trip to Texas.
And I have no words.
Yes, my cousin says a wife should submit
to her husband. That no woman should 
choose abortion. He says, God is male. 
And I have no words.
Yes, my friend tells me climate has changed
throughout history, and always will. 
We’ll be fine, since animals and plants
adapt. Declares there’s no global warming 
since it’s our coldest winter on record. 
And I have no words. 
I place a bowl here. There.
Fill them with my emotions.
Set them aside. I tell myself 
contradictions will always exist. 
It is to find love
(for the whole lot of them!)
that I must find words. 
Pen to paper.
I write against them. 

—Submitted on 01/20/2023

Yvonne Higgins Leach is the author of Another Autumn (Cherry Grove Collections, 2014). Her poems have appeared in The South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review, Spoon River Review, The Cimarron Review, and POEM, among other journals. Alongside career, family, and poetry, her most recent passion is working with shelter dogs. A resident of Washington, Leach splits her time between Vashon Island and S). 

Editor’s Note: The series title Flush Left refers to the fact that, due to our limited WordPress skills, we are only considering poems that are flush left. Poems already in our Submittable queue that have simple non-flush-left formatting may be considered for publication. Click here to submit work to Flush Left

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