Howdy.

MA,

What I enjoyed most about this piece was the raw honesty. You show the reader yourself, in such a vulnerable state. You write a lot of poetry and I do often keep up with reading (even though I've been a slack commenter), but there's something different about this poem.

It's apparent to me that this is a real life experience for you, from the emotion in this poem I can tell you lived it, felt every ache that you have presented to the reader. Now you can correct me if I'm wrong here and if I am, wow. It's rare someone can channel emotions like this and place them into a poem where the reader is convinced that the writer is recapping an event in their life.

I was caught off guard by some of the imagery in this poem. It's darker for you, 'demons', 'claws', 'blood vessels', but I liked this description because of how emotive you were here. Of course, I also loved the juxtaposing images, 'dead daisies on the bottom of your boots' < favourite line right here.

I also appreciate the way you were able to write real life conversation in with the "howdy", one word, how heartbreaking.

"We ran away with engines replacing hearts," < second favourite line.

Everything about this poem speaks to by senses and heart. I'm not sure if you've been having a hard time lately but if you have I want you to know you have a friend in me to talk to whenever you need it. Thanks for being you!

Mysteriously foreboding. This poem relies on intuitive leaps for the story, but what a story!
Your images are macabre and vivid
<dead daisies on the bottoms of your boots>
Like childhood dreams trampled underfoot.

The single greeting sounds more like a stranger coming up to someone <Howdy!?!?>

Your reluctance to move coupled with the feeling you cannot even articulate how you feel
<tar in my lungs / as I tried to spit out fantasies>

Such anguish is spilled out on the reader's lap!

And so out of tune that you feel like an automaton
<engines replacing hearts>

I get the image of an estranged father picking up a daughter of whose true life he has no clue or the motivation to discover.

Whatever it is about, your emotional impact is as powerful as Ronda Rousey's uppercut.

I want to acknowledge that I read this. I don't know what I can say, truly. I'm blown away by this. The darkness I feel, due to the heartache it portrays. Oi. This is just beautifully touching/sad.