My Pack

Poem by Rachel Joy Welcher

MY PACK

You bring the dog with you

when you think I'm sad.

I hear the stairs creak and

Frank's collar jingle

as you travel, as a pack,

to our upstairs bedroom

where I lie reading my phone

on our bed, in the dark.

I say: "Hey baby. And Frank!"

And you say, "Are you sad?"

And I say, "I told you I wasn't."

And you reply, "Yes, but sometimes

women lie about being okay."

And that's true.

Sometimes we do.

Rachel Joy Welcher, Sometimes Women Lie About Being Okay

about the author

Rachel Joy Welcher

Rachel Joy Welcher is a poet and author living in South Dakota with her husband, Pastor Evan Welcher, and their longed-for daughter, Hildegaard. Rachel works as an editor at Fathom Magazine and Lexham Press and received her Master of Letters in theology from The University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the author of four books: "Blue Tarp" (Finishing Line Press, 2016), "Two Funerals, Then Easter" (Dustlings Press, 2018), "Talking Back to Purity Culture: Rediscovering Faithful Christian Sexuality" (InterVarsity Press, 2020), and "Sometimes Women Lie About Being Okay" (Dustlings Press, 2022).

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