Jamie Steckelberg
For Kelly

She
writes
poems to
her mother
day after day, years
without seeing her, yet hearing
words like "expected," "marriage,"
"secret," and the perpetual "boys will be boys." She begins to build a life
complex with expectations, marriages, roles, abuse, silence. She escapes the chosen life,
rebuilds her own anew. Now she will find her own lovers,
mostly women, so imperfect,
emotional, and
leave them-all
control
is
hers.