FRONT PORCH LAMENT. By Sara Minges

I find comfort in 

the gentle sway 

of the front porch swing 

as I sip a cocktail on 

sultry summer nights.  

Porch swings never really 

belonged to me.

For 30 years, I’ve been 

a visitor perched 

on other people’s swings.  

We only lived once 

in a house we owned,

just a few years 

in that blue house. 

Loved playing whiffle ball out back
Though Dad always complained about 

mowing the grass and Mom often panicked

When I chased the “high balls.”  

My wild whisky blood finds comfort in chaos

It feels like home, complicated, raw, rough

Its flames helped forge my superpowers

Vulnerability, sadness, empathy, joy and laughter

Blended together, never to be torn apart.  

Sara Minges is a 2019 Pitch Best Poet of KC Nominee, Founder of Wonder Woman Rising, peer mentor, coach and motivational speaker living in Overland Park, KS.  She is the author of Naked Toes (Chameleon Press, 2019), and her work has also appeared in Prompts! An Anthology (39 West Press, 2016), Hessler Street Fair 50th Edition (Writing Knights Press, 2019) and Angel’s Share (Shine Runner Press, 2019).  She’s been a featured poet at Blue Monday (2015, Kansas City, MO); Swordfish Tom’s Speakeasy (Kansas City, MO); 3 Wishes (Merriam, KS); Poets & Pints (Minneapolis, MN); Mac’s Back Books, CLE Urban Winery, Visible Voices, and Glass City Roasters (Cleveland and Toledo, OH); In One Ear (Chicago, IL), The Porch (Nashville, TN) and Crescent Moon (Lincoln, NE).