Rhonda Lee Richoux

Taking It Back

I’m taking back my peace of mind

and you, poor bastard,

you can have all the shit

I’ve carried with me

all these years

Attrition Time has done this: no more a storehouse of vague ideologies no longer lost in the shuffle of life no longer angry with things I can’t alter no longer willing to cultivate strife no one to blame but myself for my failures no longer holding that blame like a sword no more aContinue reading “Attrition”

My Archives: A year after Katrina

At 7:00 a.m., the phone rang. It was Tracy. She was calling from her summer home in Carriere, Mississippi, on the edge of Picayune. “It’s a Cat 5,” she said. I sat up in bed. “WHAT??? Since when,”, I asked. “I don’t know, she hit a hot spot and flared up overnight. What are you going to do?” I woke Eddie up, saying “It’s a Cat 5, Ed. Wake up. We can’t stay!”

He Dropped It

i trusted him
he smelled sweet
and musky
like a happy child

The Daughters of Seafarers and Fishermen

My heart was cracked open many times, but left only the shadow of a scar as it healed. I felt sorrow that could break a soul in two, but grabbed on to hope until the day of healing came. I have left behind me the men who tried to change me to suit their needs, and have settled down with a man who loves who I am. Through it all, I knew that my family was there, allowing me to fall, but ready to pick me up if I needed them.