Kristy Snedden

Essentials

I wish I still liked being high, doped up, baked  

& buffered by fog, especially now it’s legal  

to go about my day half-stoned writing poetry. 

I’m glad my parents drank, even though it gave me  

loneliness. It was worth it to see the warm parlor light, 

hear the ice cubes tinkle against the glass, listen  

for my mother’s harsh tone to turn soft, that moment  

she tucked me into bed, careful wobbly feet in heels, 

liquor scented dreams. I’m about to be wealthy.  

I keep checking my accounts, list charities on the back page  

of this book I’m reading. I’ll give it all away I promise 

that’s a lie. I’ll keep enough for my long list of life essentials,  

mostly Microsoft on every device and money to renovate  

this house of ghost rooms. Then I’ll start on the rest  

of the world everyone who needs a little something  

to get through the day or their life, a mortared stone hut  

buttressed with moss and soft beds, chickens and a well  

in every yard, a little toke of this, a little smoke of that. 

Kristy Snedden is a trauma psychotherapist. Her poetry appears in various on-line and print journals and anthologies, including Snapdragon, CV2, and storySouth. Among other honors, her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She serves as the Book Review Editor for Anti-Heroin Chic. Kristy runs Brainspotting Through the Poet’s Eye groups to deepen healing through writing and Brainspotting. She loves hiking near her home in the foothills of Appalachia.