Wrong Feng Shui
Soles Worn Honest
Bublé on the speakers
Son hates Bublé
skip
change the shuffle
Joe Pug Hymn #35 instead
repeat
volume down
lyrics under breath
⠀
No diapers this year
no bottles
no burp cloths
no new-baby hush
Just boots getting bigger
and boots staying the same
laces replaced
soles worn honest
coats that still fit
young adults
adults being children
⠀
Eat charcuterie
lookup the word
Charcuterie
say it wrong on purpose
board
knife
napkins
crackers
pickles
mustard
meat folded like gossip
cheese gone soft at the edges
one grape that rolls away
⠀
shrimp in the middle,
wrong feng shui
eat it anyway
⠀
Turtles.
foil crinkle
thumbprint shine
one per hand
When they show up.
wrapper glare
sugar hit
look away
⠀
a game from the box
lid stuck
pieces missing
rules read out loud
someone interrupts
someone invents
score kept wrong
cheating with eye contact
answers that know you
laughter that makes room
⠀
Homemade cherry cheesecake
after salt
after meat
after “just one more piece”
after we prove, again,
we’re still kids
About the Creator
Richard Patrick Gage
I'm an author and publisher of poem anthology group from northern Ontario, I like enabling other voices and new writers. I'm also a novel writer, known for the indie darling Noetic Gravity that came out in June 2025. Here I write for me.
Keep reading
More stories from Richard Patrick Gage and writers in Poets and other communities.
Morning Keeps the Change
Change is the rumor that turned out to be true, the one tenant that never quits the lease, and yet we keep acting like it just moved in yesterday. We ask for it at the ballot box, at the mirror, in whispered prayers, then flinch when it starts rearranging the furniture of our days. This is me trying to get honest about how we live as both magnet and shield toward it, how we court it, resist it, and slowly turn into it in all the shapes it takes.
By Richard Patrick Gageabout a month ago in Poets
Center Stage with Gina C.
*** I'm keen to republish the interviews I did for my series with Vocal creators. It's been a few years and I thought it might be nice to revisit these wonderful conversations. I'll be releasing them one at a time for a few weeks/months.
By Heather Hubler5 days ago in Interview
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.