TIFFANY WASHINGTON - POEMS

Tiffany Washington is an 8th grade English teacher, mother of four, and sometimes poet. Her works have appeared in a number of print and on-line publications including Caduceus, Artis magazine, Shot Glass Journal and most recently Toasted Cheese.  

Lines ​

I cannot touch you enough 
before it is time to go. 
 
This cannot be what love is; 
rash, sudden, complete. 
 
The world, not faint and tainted 
my view consistently: you. 
 
I live with the awareness of her in me.  
 
Does all of this intend to break  
Or mend an unbendable soul?  ​

The difference in having daughters ​

​Linda chuckled when I returned  
her call, explaining I’d missed hers – 
“getting fitted for a crown.” 
Immersed in princess and castles,  
her assumption was not for tooth, but head. 
 
The world of sons is different – 
matchbox cars and airplanes 
dinosaurs and wrestling. 
I bought them babies once, and for a time 
they stayed tucked tight in strollers, 
paraded from living room to kitchen 
and back. 
Until they discovered the cacophony of sounds 
made in baby stroller collisions  
on newly mopped floors.  
 
Mermaids used to visit bathtimes 
and weekly, they’d plead for matching 
toe nail polish to mine. 
But roles engendered at playdates and daycare 
Are too ensconced to be unlearned. 
 
So princesses wait in far off towers 
At Linda’s house, while demolition derbies 
frequent mine. 
and the only crown in ours 
is the one between my molars.