The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Dropping Balls
by Angela Yuriko Smith

I was the ball and chain, a tired trope
at the end of your rope, always dropping the ball
a lost cause, a wasted space one mistake short
of being replaced.

I felt like a burden, an overused cliché
a useless victim forever on the brink
sinking fast under your eye, trapped in shadow
fumbling, failing, insufficient, inadequate
a wasted effort, a misstep to trip you up.

And then you did trip, a quick slip and spin
an accident, no harm meant, no foul play
down the metal stairs, such tragic magic
that sent your skull cracking on pavement.

I might have helped, called an ambulance
shed a tear but you chose the wrong moment
to lay the blame. A small white ball bounced
down the stairs, making music as it touched
each step, reminding me that loving you is
like trying to stack molasses, a no win game.

and like molasses I let your brains drain and
with it my pains until you cursed me for
being too stupid and lame… and I
told you I agree, and I think
the same thing and I
realized another
name for the
old ball and
chain could
be a mace.

.

Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Rie Sheridan Rose.

More from Angela Yuriko Smith:

Angela Yuriko Smith is an American poet, author and co-publisher of Space and Time magazine, a publication that has been printing speculative fiction, art and poetry since 1966. Together we build a poem as a community each month. Visit “Exquisite Corpse” at SpaceandTime.net to submit.

Catch up with Angela here!