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Best Poems Written by Lisa Milligan

Below are the all-time best Lisa Milligan poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

My Gramma S Couch

Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it
And hand me Grampa’s old transistor radio
Covered in leather with glorious knobs
That brought me the glorious music of
The Beatles
While I played very carefully with 
Her precious dog collection 
Some tiny, some large
Hand blown glass or wooden carved
She promised it would be mine one day
I glance at where it hangs today 
On my wall and smile 
They thought they could cheat me out of it 
But somehow Veronica won from beyond the grave
With a mighty flap of her shimmering wings
Slapping them across their vengeful, conniving faces
And it is mine

Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it
Her comfy living room filled with the beauty 
Of stuffed antique chairs
Lit with pretty cranberry glass lamps
Crowned with fringed lampshades
On little marble-topped gilded tables 
Next to the kitchen where the grownups crowded
To gossip about aunts, uncles and cousins 
Thinking I wouldn’t understand 
They had a lot to catch up on since last we were there
The auntie who was schizophrenic
The other who had exciting explanations about her absent husband 
Whispers when Irish whiskey was mentioned at talk of my uncle and something called Bushmills
While my mother sat and preened in her professing of our family’s perfection

Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it
The road trip to Massachusetts from Virginia 
Was a long one in our crowded station wagon
And started at McDonalds for breakfast 
I always looked forward to that
Sitting on the coolness of the red and white tile benches
Built along the outside of McD’s
They didn’t even have indoor restaurants back then

Further on up the road 
Us four kids traveling in the crowded back seats
Playing car games and card games
Eying the picnic basket 
Filled with sandwiches, pickles, chips and juice
And apples, oranges and bananas 
But no cookies or candy
Mother didn’t believe in that 
Running around rest stops, stopping for more gas
Sleeping until we got there, tumbling out of the car to run to Gramma and Grampa
Like a litter of exuberant puppies 
And were met by Farmer Koski who had walked out his back door
Picked us a bushel of his best fresh corn cobs when he saw our car driving down the forest dirt road to Gramma and Grampas’s big red farmhouse
Named Straw Hollow
I remember sitting on my Grampa’s lap across from the huge stone fireplace 
It was the safest, happiest place in my life
We lost Grampa when they lived there

They had a ginger tabby named Tiger Lily
Who had to be renamed Tiger Louie when they realized their mistake
I’ll never forget the sound of my Gramma’s grief-stricken protests and cries
My mother answered Gramma’s bedroom door and I saw Gramma clinging to my aunt
My eyes asking my mother what was wrong
She said Tiger Louie was lost and that’s why Gramma was crying
It took me many years to realize that’s the day my Grampa died

Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it where
Aunt Aggie and Uncle Leon sat there
Big smiles, warm eyes, Uncle Leon’s cigars
Their infectious joy in life was to laugh 
And have fun watching as we did too
Adirondack chairs with big puffy cushions 
Smelling slightly musty 
Being kept in the backyard all summer 
Eating tomatoes that tasted as though kissed by heaven 
And little cucumbers too
Perfect, splashed with crystal water
From the hose

Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it
So I can ask her all my questions 
About why my parents married 
Did she notice how they treated me 
The way Auntie Helen did
And so I can hold her crooked, shaking hands 
So like my own 
And apologize for how I hurt her feelings while a runaway teenage girl
Who wound up just down the street from her house 
All she wanted was for me to come see her
And to also apologize for years later 
That I exhaustedly said, ”No, I really can’t”
Amidst her helpless, desperate litany 
Sitting in her wheelchair, lost in her misery
Begging, “Can you please help me?”

Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it

Just don’t let me look into it

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Memorial Day

Because of you
we can get up every morning
and go to work
run errands at lunch time
drive through McDonald’s
fill up our gas tanks
and make it back to work
just in time

Because of you
we don’t have houses
we have homes
where we walk through the door
the dog jumps on us
as do our children
we hug our spouses
and smell dinner cooking

Because of you
we have artwork from Kindergarten
and shopping lists
hanging on the refrigerator
along with pictures held up with tape or magnets
school pictures, pictures of Gramma and Grampa
pictures of babies, kittens, and teenagers
dressed for the prom

Because of you
we gather around the dinner table
play in the backyard with our kids
feed the cat, walk the dog
splash water on our children in the tub
then tuck them into bed with hugs and kisses
and reassurance there are no monsters
in closets or under beds

Because of you
with the children asleep
and the dishes all done
men make love to their wives
wives make love to their husbands
and drift off to sleep intertwined
feeling life is good, all is well
and we are safe

Because of you
we are safe
we can sit in fields watching our kids play soccer
or in the stands watching our kids play hockey
we can grill hamburgers and hot dogs
eat potato salad and cole slaw
drink ice cold beer
and play pool while the kids run through sprinklers

Because of you
we must remember
to have a moment of silence on Memorial Day
to remember your sacrifice
and your family’s
and to thank you that we get to live these lives
sometimes eventful, sometimes uneventful
but always full of possibilities

Because of you

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Celtic Moon Sisters

Dark and quiet 
Immense and towering 
The trees add to the blackness all around me
My bare feet revel in the lush cool grass 
As I wander, aimlessly 
But feel the pull of gentle magic 
Are there Celtic moon sisters out here tonight?
Come out from behind the massive ancient standing stones 
I want to dance hand in hand 
In a circle of kinship and love 
We’ll generate the power from inside the Stonehenge stones 
Even though they’re far away 
They answer our call 
As the wind lifts our soft hair from around our shoulders
To tease our flushed faces, damp from our dancing 
The moon bestows her bright white light 
Bouncing off the midnight blue of the forest behind us
Filling us with power and excitement 
We instinctively know the steps of this dance 
Souls swelling with joy and abandon 
The real world fading away into the night 
Mythical creatures materialize in this new place that no one believes in 
Angels with opal colored wings outstretched in the sky
Pixies and Elves dancing amongst us
Their high pitched giggles barely heard
Tumbling in the wind, mixing with our own laughter 
Tiny sparkling bits of hummingbird shaped flames
Float down and fill the spaces between us 
Musical strains of beauty that bring a tear to the eye 
Ah, my Ireland
Fairy circles found in the dewy morning grass at sunrise 
Left behind from our revelry in the deepest hours of night 
Causing bewildered looks on faces of the straight-laced as they glance 
Unbelieving 
Then walk on and shrug it all away

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Beauty

Running as fast as I can
heart pounding
I can feel his wings beating
by the wind swirling around me
my lynx instincts are alive
as I try to escape this hungry bird
but I’m no match for his cunning
speed or strength

My breath rasping and out of energy
I know I’ve lost this race
as his claws slice through my body
I am his to devour
hidden wide eyes peer
through leaves and branches
at the raptor who tears me apart
with wild abandon

They watch as his razor sharp beak
pierces my chest and rips out my heart
tearing it to pieces between beak and talons
only to drop it on the ground
unwanted

Watchful hidden eyes stare at the bird
as he takes to the sky with his prize
carrying what’s left of me away
gripped in talons to his feeding place
and they gaze at my heart in tatters on the ground
Spring turns to Summer
days of blistering heat that dry everything
turning my heart into dust
that disintegrates into the soil
Summer turns to Autumn
this place of dying lies buried
under brightly colored layers

Next comes Winter
with its punishing winds
and blankets of snow
freezing the ground
hardening the tiny pieces
of my heart

The raptor continues
his never ending obsession of the hunt
year in and year out
though now he's after much younger
more tender prey
completely oblivious that
a gentle sparrow dropped seeds
that got stuck to his tiny feet
as he fed amongst the grass and violets
and landed where I died

But in the pounding rain
these seeds sank into the ground
and were fertilized by the shredded remains
of my unwanted heart torn apart
so that one warm sunny day
slowly through the lush green grass
beautiful deep purple violets burst forth
that sway gently in the wind
making beauty out of devastation

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Moonlight In the Sea

Hair the color of saffron 
undulating slowly 
capturing the sunlight 
entangling pearls in her curls
mesmerizing 

Surrounded by life
bursting around her
some billowing with the ebb and flow 
in time with her glorious hair 
some moving through the water
at their own pace
she smiles, face upturned 
reveling in the sun that filters down to her 

She loves her home 
especially in the moonlight 
it envelopes her as she gazes 
at her eternal twin fish constellation 
the waters part as she slices through it
sinuous emerald thrusts Atargatis would envy

Nothing hides her beauty 
and the magic that she bears
encouraging us to face our inner demons
forgive our darkest selves 
and allow 

transformation

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Cat S Eye

The Cat’s Eye nebula lost its luster 
just like us, a two star cluster 

Worms showed up silently 
as they are wont to do, and gradually 
until their feasting decimated us

Two precious dogs lost their fight 
and I’m drowning in the deluge
as the cherished rabbit tried to swim away
lying on his side, calling out for his mother 

Broken heart would pull out its pacemaker 
it would stop beating if given its choice 
too great the loss, human and animal voice 

The culmination of a life 
camouflaged as one well lived
while underneath is the truth 
and the fatal undertow

Simultaneously for another 
life is just beginning 
though forces cause a late bloomer 

What lies before him into summer ahead 
strong solid strides along the shore
another fading into autumn, looking back
caught offshore in the undertow
begging for mercy

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Fidelity

Lemon brightness in my eyes

to warmer climes in winter he flies

it’s in his nature to choose his wife

instinctively choosing to mate for life

fidelity causes some men to flinch

they could learn a thing or two from


my finch

Details | Lisa Milligan Poem

Color

One only need look

at God’s handiwork to see

all colors in all forms

can’t possibly thrive

separately