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Head Up, a poem by Manon Voice

Head Up

          by Manon Voice

... shoulders back.
Don’t tell them how you struggled to get out of the book laden bed
impoverished with broken poetry hooks
ringing over your head
a quarter widowed wine glass
you took with an antidepressant and the taste of your own salt.
How you fed the dog and didn’t yourself.
How you barely breathed in the shower
And clothed yourself in war black because it was easiest to hide in.
On the way
there was no song somber or sultry
enough for the trip, everyday
how you survive the loneliness of the driver side
the overwhelm of that much control between the breadth of your hands.
Don’t tell them how you count miles as the making of a life and numbers
grow on you slowly edging you out of risk.
Don’t ask yourself
“Where have you been?
after all the “good mornings” and dirt coffee taken with emails.
No one after noticed how your legs hang from the desk chair
nor ever touch the floor,
as if you weren’t here or home or never meant to be, anyway.




Manon Voice is a native of Indianapolis and is a poet, spoken word artist, freelance writer, hip-hop emcee and social justice activist. She seeks to use her art and activism to create a communal space where dialogue, transformation, discovery and inspiration can occur.