The Paddock Review

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A Poem by Marjie Giffin

The Late Hour

 

 

arrives early it seems and pits me

against the digital clock face

that dares me to defy its logic.

Defy it I must, for there are no             hours

for my own doings and yearnings

unless l scavenge them from

the riff-raff moments of the end

     of day.

 

I am used to the scraps of life,

as a woman and more, a wife,

whose value cannot measure up

to the sexy perks of an executive

spouse — whose personal needs

get swallowed up by martini 

     lunches

and after-hour cocktail soirees

and holiday parties sans wives.

 

Unholy work perhaps to labor     

     long

by sinks and mounds of laundry

and then muster the zeal to steal

some time to pen a wistful line.

Yet fruitful work for sanity to be

saved and some remnants of self

to be salvaged in a day’s late 

     hour.

 

This poem is from the chapbook The Late Hour — Poems by Marjie Giffin (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-late-hour-poems-by-marjie-giffin/

THE LATE HOUR – POEMS is a collection of poems that reflect on the vicissitudes of daily life for a woman who is willing to share her observations and experiences openly. The poet steps gingerly, but touches upon marriage, aging, sexism, motherhood, daughterhood, societal ills, pandemic, and climate change. The treatment of these topics is honest but handled with the care of a woman who meshes the best of life with its most troubling aspects.


Marjie Giffin is a Midwestern author of four regional histories and a wide array of poetry. A graduate of Indiana University and an M.A. graduate of Butler University, Marjie is also certified in gifted and talented education. She has taught college-level writing, secondary gifted education, and has had her poetry published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Touring, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021, and three of her poems were selected in 2023 for the Indiana Poetry Archive, INverse. Marjie lives and writes in Indianapolis, where she serves as a Poetry Reader for the literary publication, Flying Island.