Chromosomes: Y-axis, solving for x

by Betsy Mars

Another night like the one you left

hanging, silenced. 

Another midnight chorus of why why why

shallows my breath, 

resounds in my brain -

beating, beaten.

The dangling ex ex ex, uncrossed: 

for wives, for chromosomes,

for kisses

shared or not -

a knot around your neck,

a not for your future, a not for your son

a knot in my throat, a not for any answers, 

X'd out. Suspended, 

with no hope 

to know your whys ways. 

* * * * *

Betsy Mars is a southern California poet who is in a perpetual battle with change – finally coming to some kind of a truce, and at times even love and acceptance. She is an educator, mother, animal lover, and over-excited traveler. Her poetry has been published in a number of places, both online and in print, most recently in Sheila-Na-Gig, The Ekphrastic Review, and Red Wolf Journal. Writing has given her a means to explore her preoccupation with mortality and her evolving sense of self.