Ohio Street

She listens to

“I Can’t Make You Love Me”

while pouring her heart out in paint

In the late evening of Autumn ’91 

A home for three on Ohio street

There is a broken clock on the stoop

and letters full of cursive curses

My sister and I oblivious at the time

Only asking “Momma, don’t cry”

Only now as an adult have I learned

that kind of pain…

And my heart breaks to know what it means