January 2023
Bio Note: I am a Midwestern high school teacher and Poetry Club advisor. My students and I have been actively involved in 100,000 Poets for Change. I served on the board of the Council for Wisconsin Writers and I am English language editor for Poetry Hall: A Chinese and English Bilingual Journal. I have published three chapbooks.
Unspoken
I find loose change in my son’s unmade bed, but do
not let myself straighten the quilt. I plunk the cold
coins into an old cup. He left school and works now.
He often sleeps on the sofa, so I find coins there.
He’s nineteen, soon to leave balloons behind. I find
overdue fine notices from the County Clerk of Courts
fallen to the floor and forgotten. An orange soccer
shoe rests halfway under the bed. A few Magic Cards
are splayed across a face-down senior prom photo.
Without trying to, I recently came across the secret
he hasn’t yet told me. At night, he sleeps in his thick
jeans and leaves behind this hard scattering of change.
©2023 Sylvia Cavanaugh
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