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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Why Peace Will Forever Elude Us” Down in the Dirt, v167 (the November/December 2019 Issue) Order the paperback book:

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Sphinxes and Daughters

Alison McBain

Behind closed doors
insinuation escaped
instead of voices.
In the fifties
with a kid to support
divorce was a dirty word—
her daughter born months early,
blinded by hospital error:
too much oxygen.


The school kids called her “Missus”
but what they really meant
was “Don’t matter.”
So she went home
to a teenager
now too busy for a
worn-out singleton parent.


What could she show her daughter
about love?
A lonely road,
as they say:
the teacher,
not the doer.


Family paths moved away
and turned sharp corners
out of sight
while she walked unhurriedly
through the decades
strong and silent
as a Sphinx,
arriving at last
to where textbooks couldn’t reach.

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