New Poetry by Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Childhood Home 

Happily-ever-after did not

paper the walls. Pencils

did not mark inches grown,

or the spine’s curve

bending right when, at 9,

I learned there were only

barbed angles in this house,

a skewered patchwork

of heated arguments, splintered

door frames, tainted truths,

and a roof that leaked

every time I cried.

- © Karen Pierce Gonzalez 2021

Karen Pierce Gonzalez’s fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous publications. A former journalist and folklore columnist, she facilitates creative and folktale writing workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area. karenpiercegonzalez.blogspot.com