Rockwell’s Rejects

Father’s screaming in the garden
Again. I run
Toward the window to listen
Behind the curtains to hide

Peeking over the window frame
I wonder if the neighbors can hear
Or if they’re distracted watching the game
Screaming along with father over a few beers

I can barely see half of him
And he can’t see me at all
As he cries leaning over a trash bin
Arms wrapped around his head like a shawl

My knocking on the glass
Rings silent against his sound
I’ll wait to tell him when he comes around

He drops to his knees
The sight follows the thud
His chest rises as he screams
It’s almost as though he doesn’t see
The hose flailing in the air, watering the flowers

Liz Israelian is a senior at USC double majoring in business and accounting. She’s a SoCal native who has been writing her entire life. She started an online comic book retail company at the age of 16 and works at Marshall’s Greif Center of Entrepreneurial Studies as a Teaching Assistant. She hopes to one day publish a series of poems and found her own femtech company.