When I was Eight I Learned it was Shameful by Lynn Finger

to be creative & have too much stuff.
My nana beaded blue horses on canvas,
tooled leather & collected fabric.

She was creative & had too much stuff.
When she died, my dad said, “Your grandpa
found tooled leather & collections of fabric
stacked to the ceiling in her room, no lie.”

When she died, my dad said, “Your grandpa
found billows & waves of the stuff
stacked to the ceiling in her room, no lie.”
Towers of boxes, bed obliterated,

billows & waves of the stuff.
She had OCD & couldn’t let go,
kept towers of boxes, bed obliterated.
They shook their heads, gone.

She had OCD, & couldn’t let go,
she bled blue horses on canvas.
They shook their heads. I loved her blue horses.
But when I was eight I learned it was shameful.

Lynn Finger’s poetry has appeared in Night Music Journal, Ekphrastic Review, Daily Drunk, 8Poems, Perhappened, and is forthcoming in Drunk Monkeys. Lynn is an editor at Harpy Hybrid Review and works with a group that mentors writers in prison. Follow Lynn on Twitter @sweetfirefly2.