- Carolyn Linck
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.