{"id":1660,"date":"2013-05-17T01:49:57","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T01:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2017-07-11T20:46:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T20:46:41","slug":"tether-by-m-e-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/tether-by-m-e-riley\/","title":{"rendered":"Tether by M.E. Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"meriley\"<\/a>
\nTether<\/h1>\n

by M.E. Riley<\/p>\n

Tether ball hung from overgrown
\nmaple really a soccer ball dented in
\nhalf with yellow nylon rope
\nbut stepfather called it tether ball
\nThat’s what it was<\/p>\n

School was over
\nI pushed the trampoline beneath
\nthe tree jumped high enough to bite
\nthe tip off an oak leaf
\nI shoved my fist into the bulging ball
\nit swung away from me it swung back
\ntowards me my bouncing sports bra
\nsmall knots I’d been praying for
\nWeren’t as big as my cousin’s she wore
\na nude bra with underwire so her peach
\nknobs wouldn’t show through
\ntight Aeropostale shirts I’d never been able to afford<\/p>\n

Didn’t even want a brand name
\nacross my breasts till I saw hers
\nstretching the cotton-stitched logo
\nmy neighbor groping spaces between
\na and e, r and o
\ntheir moans growing as I tried
\nkeeping distracted Baywatch playing on
\nhis TV mounted in the corner<\/p>\n

Summer heat swelled the room
\nhis Nascar bedspread felt
\nscratchy back of my neck sweated walls
\nbowed in like pairs of hips
\nsquished soccer balls I looked through his
\nbedroom windows across the street was my house
\nbackyard and trampoline the tether ball
\nswinging with every hot thrust of wind<\/p>\n

I played in the backyard till mid-August
\neven though Mama fussed about it being too hot
\nI jumped and punched and bounced and swung
\ntill I heard a screen door open and shut
\nacross the street my neighbor shirtless jerking
\nlawn mower pull cord it revved up then went
\nquiet revved then quiet rev-sigh, rev-sigh, I watched
\ntill humidity grew thick my throat clenched<\/p>\n

###
\nM.E. Riley is an Assistant Poetry Editor for Bayou Magazine, as well as a regular contributor to Bayou’s blog. Work has most recently appeared in Nude Bruce Review, Eunoia Review, Belle Journal, and Tales from the South VI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tether ball hung from overgrown
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