Selected Poetry by Carolyn Linck

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Leaving Las Vegas

The barren desert.

Cactus and tumble weeds.

And then, a mobster comes to town.

The neon lights shine.

The sexy girls dance.

The slot machines clang.

But no one

Ever wins, besides the House.

Remember, bookies drive Cadillacs

Not Volkswagens.

But there are homes and schools and churches and parks.

But casinos.

They are what makes the town. What makes it famous.

Infamous.

What happens here stays here.

Except me.

I left home.

Drive carefully.

Come back soon.

To fabulous Las Vegas.

And They Did

My mom wakes up confused

from a dream

“I don’t even like him that much,”

she thinks

She wore my aunt’s flannel sweater on their first date

So he wouldn’t get the wrong idea

They would be just friends,

she had decided

But all she can hear

Is Simon and Garfunkel

Singing

Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together

And she knew

She would marry my father

“You never know,” she tells me

“They can sneak up on you. Your dad did to me.”

And she was a 70s bride

With flowers in her hair

Walking down the aisle

Towards my father

Full beard and head of auburn hair

Different yet the same

as the man I know

She hears Simon and Garfunkel again

Like she did in her dream years before

Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together

And they did.

Never Met

did you know

you could miss someone

you’ve never met?

without ever looking them in the eye

or hearing the sound of their laugh

or experiencing their loveliness

for yourself

you miss them

all the same

aching

for an embrace

you’ve never known

a touch you’ve never felt,

wishing the photographs

could talk back

and you could make up for lost time.

who are these people?

and how can this be?

a man

whose days ran out

long ago

but whose intelligence and pride

have lived on

in my mother.

a baby, who grows every day

born across the sea

during a year no one saw coming

but whose eyes

are that specific shade of midnight blue

his irises encircled by a ring of lighter, Carolina blue

the eyes

that I always envied

in my sister.

these are the people.

and strange as it may seem,

you miss them

though you’ve never met

all the same

knowing that they are a piece of you

and you of them.

how can this be?

you wonder day after day

but across decades and lifetimes

across all the miles and all the seas

you just know

family.

there are distances that can be traveled someday

and distances you’ll never overcome

but your heart knows what’s true:

you belong to them

and they to you.

the bond is stronger

than anything.

everything.

Space.

Time.

Distance.

Pandemics and death.

no matter what keeps you separated now

some day you will meet

and you will feel you are home, though you don’t know how.

but your heart always knew:

you belong to them

and they to you.

Carolyn Linck is an aspiring fiction writer, currently working on her first novel in her spare time. Her fiction has appeared in Adelaide Magazine. By day, she works in corporate communications for technology companies where she does everything from ghostwriting executive op-eds to drafting press releases, product descriptions and blog posts. While born and raised in Las Vegas, she currently lives in Chicago with her dog, Bailey.

If you are interested in learning more about Carolyn Linck, you can find her on Twitter here.