by Larry D. Thacker
Stranded
When my uneven ladder –
one I’d climbed to clean
the gutters – clattered
to the patio cement,
I was marooned
like a cartoon sailor
on a deserted island. My wife
had gone out shopping.
I had no phone. Squatting
on the asphalt shingles,
I scanned the suburban horizon
for a rescue ship. Waving
my hands, shouting
and red-faced like someone
who finds his parked car up
on cinder blocks, I was desperate.
This was real loneliness,
the need that shouts, “Why
can’t someone find me?”
One human was all I wanted.
Then my wife returned.
It was like first love.
Pausing first to put away
the frozen goods, she raised
a ladder to welcome me.
I kissed the one
who was my home.
Having gone nowhere, I was saved.
Chris Bullard lives in Philadelphia, PA. In 2022, Main Street Rag published his poetry chapbook, Florida Man, and Moonstone Press published his poetry chapbook, The Rainclouds of y. Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, Lungs, in April and his work appeared in Keystone: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, this May.
Larry D. Thacker is a Kentuckian writer, artist, educator, and reality actor, hailing from Johnson City, TN. His poetry and fiction can be found in over 200 publications. His MFA in poetry and fiction is earned from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Check out his website at: www.larrydthacker.com