Such Sweet Thunder

In subtraction,
if the top digit is less than
the bottom one, you borrow
from the next digit to get
the correct answer.  This
was my parents’ way,
grabbing from a fight the night before
and carrying it into the next day
to arrive at the necessary amount of
diminishing returns in their marriage,
an indelible haunting when
my brother and I grew up.

Later in life I ask, can disappointment
and grudge-keeping belie 
a deeper connection where strife 
kept their marriage on life-support?

Jean Colonomos began her career in the arts as a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Her poetry has been published online and in several journals, including Askew, Spillway, Third Wednesday and the American Writers Review. Most recently, M. Colonomos has been writing with poet Ann Buxie. Their new call-and-response volume is titled KNOCK KNOCK. They’ve been featured readers at the EP Foster Library, the Library of Thousand Oaks and Beyond Baroque. Her chapbook, ART FARM, is published by Finishing Line Press.

Fabrice Poussin is an author of novels and poetry. His poetry and photography have appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review and many other publications.