Inherit the Wind

My grandmother

is dusting her porcelain

clowns says over time they

were forced to love each other  

full and up to the bricks of it  

the low ceilings the bunkbeds  

and sheet lightning he never  

yelled big obscenities never 

spat blood never hid a gun behind  

a bathtub panel arctic roll 

sat softly in the freezer asbestos 

snuggled in the walls impeccable

skirting boards he liked  

it done a certain way baked beans 

on roast dinners never voted never  

stepped foot in the school never nativities 

never indented the back of her head in drywall  

things were more pastel back then when you married  

for good men kept their control strictly financial  

the plates on the walls hid tiny chickens waiting  

to lay their tiny eggs women were unmedicated 

no one knew what happened to dust before it settles 

‘Inherit the Wind’ won the third place prize of our 2021 International Poetry Competition.