didn't need them this time White Bear Eagle Sea Turtle Ivory Dove just directly to the motel room himself sitting at the foot of the bed finished and finished and entirely seized (Merlin and Morgana) and you standing to the right behind him in your black bra and slip never looking so lost possessed by all that losing he snapped to like a slap a mystic rear end collision lost your number and has passed you by every day since his dearest friend quizzical hurt saved --- Wayne-Daniel Berard, an adoptee who found and embraced his Jewishness, teaches English and Humanities at Nichols College, Dudley, MA. He is an interfaith clergy person, and co-founding editor of Soul-Lit, an online journal of spiritual poetry. He lives in Mansfield, MA with his wife, The Lovely Christine.
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Rest Stop by Allyson Whipple
~For Harrison Porobil
You’ve survived worse odds
than this: childhood,
hurricanes, homelessness.
This time it’s just a broken
lock that has you stuck
here, taking stock
of misfortune. What a way
to spend Christmas
morning, trapped on I-10.
Gas station toilet a stinking
pen. But no matter
how you turn and pull
and push until your muscles
burn you’re stuck with stale
air and stink and more time
than you’d like to think
about the turning of the year.
There’s sweat upon your brow
from fighting with the force
that holds you in. As it’s always been:
you’re a man of motion. Kick
the door open, get in the car.
—
Allyson Whipple has an M.A. in English and a black belt in Kung Fu. She is currently studying poetry through the UT-El Paso Online MFA Program. Allyson serves as co-editor of the Texas Poetry Calendar, and is the author of the chapbook We’re Smaller Than We Think We Are. She teaches at Austin Community College.