Two Screws
How Could I Have Known?
Married thirty-four years
**
He entered the room
and announced
that he was going to
the hardware store
to buy two screws
**
He gave her a hug
She smelled
the grease on his neck
She liked that smell...
his smell...
of a hard worker
**
He pressed his lips
against hers
and took off
on his mission
**
She never understood
how someone who
complained about her
making a pot of coffee
for a roomful of guests,
and then having to
throw out half the pot
because they didn’t
drink it, and that
she should only make
as many cups as
absolutely necessary,
could waste his gas
money to drive to the
store for two screws
**
Soon she heard
the rumble of his
truck back in
the driveway ,
and the thud of
his hammer
striking the wood
**
He didn’t know it
but this would be
his legacy.
The addition was
finished
And then came …
**
Leukemia.
Six weeks.
Fifty-six years old.
Gone too soon.
**
She picked up his glove
It smelled of grease
Oh how she wished
he was here
to tell her he was
going to buy two screws
About the Creator
Gigi Gibson
Gigi Gibson is a writer and poet. She loves little rescue dogs, interior decorating, and chocolate. “To evoke an emotional response in my readers… that would be the most satisfying thing that I could accomplish with my writing.”
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Day 4 of Quitting
If this is how sobriety feels, maybe it’s better to go through life a little buzzed… this, along with other hits like, I want to kill myself, I wish I was dead, and I’m going to throw myself off a bridge have been the only thoughts on rotation these past few days. I promise myself that if, in a month, I still feel like this (‘this’ meaning despondent, full of rage, and simultaneously numb) I can go back to smoking. Until mid-February though? Nicotine is off the table.
By sleepy drafts5 days ago in Longevity
Comments (2)
I can only imagine how difficult it was. He lives in the strength of your poetry.
It made me cry. It made me wish I had found someone with that smell before I got hit with MBC because now love just seems out of the picture for me. So sad. And I used to live for love.