Melissa Schuppe is a wife and mother whose words reflect the exploration of her life’s events. She is a nurse in both family practice and Alzheimer’s care settings.
Her works have appeared in Midwifery Today, the Birthkit, Whispers from the Unseen, Inscribed Magazine, and The Writer’s Block. She lives in Lynchburg, Virginia with her family, who has shaped her into who she is.
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Carving Tool
The eighth steak knife is gone
from the wooden block
which holds the set,
a gift from Anne long ago.
We use them so rarely-
how could we have lost one?
I imagined my daughter had taken it.
She was a thief, and besides-
could not stop cutting herself
with whatever she could find
to bleed out her pain.
Her sweet body a maze of scars-
worthless
tooled across her right calf
in angry slivers.
I would stand on the other side
of her lavender door,
my palms pressed moist,
unable to push through.
I never found the knife.
Perhaps it fell into the trash bin
after a night of wet steak
and dark wine.