Beer in His Soul by Melinda Longtin

I knew a kid once
With beer in his soul.
Perception removed.
Eyes clicked off
Just echoes of BoJack Horseman and Family Guy
Laughing in the violent vigor
Of adult content.
Inappropriate is a way of life.

His grandma screams in the field back home.
Kid’s baby brother falls out of her drunk arms.
Bang!
Baby brother smacks soaked soil
Face first.
Storms and drooping hops
Blinded the baby too.

I am a social worker.
My heels were made
For kicking down doors,
Delivering glass eyes,
And catching infants
Before they hit the ground.

Back at the group home,
The children are too busy spinning,
Tainted by delirious vertigo
They cannot see my outstretched arms.

Too much beer in all their souls.
How do I sober thunder?
The calligraphy of lightning
Etched upon my back.

Melinda Longtin has several years of experience providing multi-disciplinary education and social work support to K-12 students in the foster care system. In addition to her foster care work, Mrs. Longtin has extensive hands-on experience working with children with special needs. As an advocate for equal educational and economic opportunities for both children and adults, she volunteers for a variety of relevant organizations and has also founded insprwing, a blog about the right to pursuit of happiness. In addition to inspirwing, Mrs. Longtin uses poetry to provide a voice for domestic violence survivors. Her previous publications include poems in literary magazines around the world as well as her collection, Metaphoria, which focuses on her own journey of surviving domestic violence.