“Coming Home” by Lynne Schmidt

I never boxed you up
like the others.

Instead, the lucky coin you gave
stayed in my wallet so I could see you 

each time I reached for coffee.
You stayed in my words

so that ‘cute’ took on a
sarcastic tone.

You stayed out on display
so those who sat on my couch

Or laid in my bed
paled in comparison.

Because all those boys
who were packed into boxes

were labeled, dated, and buried
like lost loved ones.

And you stayed
where everyone could see you

because after all this time
I hold onto hope that you’ll come home.

—

Lynne Schmidt is a mental health professional and an award winning poet and memoir author who also writes young adult fiction. She is the author of the poetry chapbooks, Gravity (Nightingale and Sparrow Press 2019), and On Becoming a Role Model (Thirty West 2020). Her work has received the Maine Nonfiction Award, Editor’s Choice Award, and was a 2018 and 2019 PNWA finalist for memoir and poetry respectively. Lynne is a five time 2019 Best of the Net Nominee, and an honorable mention for the Charles Bukowski Poetry Award. In 2012 she started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her three dogs and one cat to humans.