HOMEGROWN ATROCITIES

By Richard Pacheco

I watch my children grow
more like me each day.
I see their sneers
their obvious revenge
repeating my habits
and mannerisms
in an attempt to drive me mad.
They build pyramids of dishes
by the sink in the hope of a flood.
An avalanche of laundry
tumbles into the hallway
almost alive-- and they smile.
In their teenage years
they have built the Great Wall of China
between us as I struggle ·
to maintain some trace of civilization
they prefer to be barbarians
just for the fun of it.
So I smirk to hide my fear I
knowing they know me too well
and my little charade
is too pat and predictable
to work.
And we retrace our steps
with each fresh day
and mock each other
behind our backs.
It is a careless strategy
so sad and sterile
Unmade restitutions
accumulate too fast
and we remain
destiny's deliberate malcontents.

Looking for absolution

They calculate prayers A
meticulous as mathematicians
devotee of empiricism.
Prayer
Their beads are fine baby teeth
plucked from Dachau corpses
strung together….phantom faith
They march by candlelight.
a procession
across the windy places
the sandy expanses of
the despairing hearts
Quick & silent as nomads
( mounting the crested dunes
they move
whispering
the names of the dead
into the sirocco

Footsteps

The women walk by in the rain
their heels clattering
like frightened crickets…

About the Author:

Richard Pacheco is an award-winning playwright, poet, artist, journalist, filmmaker and educator. A finalist in the grant competition in playwrighting at Massachusetts Artists Foundation (1976) he won the 1986 American Regional Theatre Award  best new play. His plays have been seen throughout Massachusetts. He won the best actor Award from New England Russian in Boston, He acts on stage, in film and television. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.. He holds a BFA in painting and an MFA in printmaking from U. Mass. Dartmouth His poetry book, “Geography” was nominated for a 2015 Pulitzer Prize in poetry.