By Mummelgrummel [<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>], from Wikimedia Commons

Pot-Bound

• Roots
• strangled
• reaching out
• suffocating
• every several years
• all plants need repotting
• their nutrients depleted
• larger pot, richer potting mix
• untangle roots gently, water deep
• am I pot-bound needing replanting too
• how long has this mature plant lay dormant
• plagued with decay, refusing sunlight
• propagate and fertilize me
• soak and soothe my snarled roots
• shock me with fresh moist soil
• remove my dead leaves
• prune my branches
• hold my stem
• help me
• Bloom

Left Out

• I’m a left-handed woman
• in a right-handed world
• where right equals might and
• you better have the right answer.
• Every boss wants a right-hand man
• Even Scripture proclaims
• The good will sit on the
• right side of the throne.
• Lefties struggle to perform
• simple tasks like writing cursive
• or cutting with scissors
• and always must dine at the
• left end of the table
• Hurry up Mom would say,
• or you’ll be left behind.
• I’ve had it with remarks such as
• You have two left feet or
• Your left hand doesn’t know
• what your right hand is doing
• Left-handed comments sting my ears
• How many southpaws agree?
• Am I out in left field?
• I think I’m right about this issue
• I’m a left-handed woman
• in a right-handed world
• And I feel left out!

Nancy Foley earned her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Dayton. She and her husband moved from Indianapolis to San Diego in 1982. After raising four children, Nancy enrolled in creative writing classes at SDSU. She has been a member of the San Diego Community College Writer’s Workshop since 2007. Her prose and poetry appear in four anthologies: For the Love of Writing, A Volume of Voices, Fruit & Fig Leaves, and The Stories Start Here, as well as a self-published collection, In Her Own Words. She was the featured poet in the 10/06/16 issue of the San Diego Reader’s Rhyme & Verse section. On 2/5/17 Nancy was the guest poet at the monthly gathering of Poets Inland North Cty, SD. Her family, including eight grandchildren, provides ample material for her essays and poems.