Joan Magiet
Joan Beverly is a former Assistant Professor of English, adjunct faculty at Nassau Community College, New York, an award winning journalist and poet. As a magazine article writer she has served as feature editor, travel editor and arts editor for several tri-state magazines. As a journalist she has written news and feature articles for several Long Island newspapers. She is a founding member of Performance Poets Association, a former contest judge and editor and a member of the Academy of American Poets. In a contest sponsored by the National League of American Pen Women, she won second prize for her poem, “The Empty Room.” She has hosted monthly poetry readings at Barnes and Noble on Long Island and Books-a-Million in Sarasota, Florida. She has given readings at local bookstores and libraries on Long Island and in Sarasota and on radio and television. She currently runs a monthly poetry workshop at the Gulf Gate Library in Sarasota. She is the author of “Tender Chains” a collection of poetry written from the heart. She is currently working on her second book of poems, “Push Back the Boundaries. “
The following work is Copyright © 2022, and owned by Joan Magiet and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Bed Vigil
Back from surgery you fight
the effects of anesthesia,
force words to leave your lips
slower than the drip flowing
into your arm under lids anxious to drop.
Your eyes smile at us.
Your younger son holds your hand.
Your older son tells you jokes,
forces your smile into a laugh.
I sit near you. Our tangled fingers
complete the healing circle of love.
We are content to leave them our bond.
A stream of nurses checks your vital signs.
They offer cheery clichés but I will nurture you
back to robust health, drive you to doctor’s
appointments, take you for walks,
make your meals.
Your sons talk of this week flickering in memory
like the flashing light on the EKG monitor.
I bring you apple juice from your dinner tray,
hold the straw to your lips, dismiss the fear
invading my thoughts hours ago
in the surgical waiting room.
The possibility of your not being here.
Richard Lynch
I have no idea what I am doing, and I prefer it that way.
The following work is Copyright © 2022, and owned by Richard Lynch and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Two Legged Donkey
Try to walk a two
legged donkey and
see how well that
goes.
Choose whatever legs
you want in any
combination and the
donkey, already stubborn,
will yield or fall.
Which leg will it lift
with only two.
Which will it land on.
How do you get your
donkey to walk?
How much does
a donkey weigh?
And how hard does
one fall?
The tremor in the
earth might stop you
from ever walking the
Donkey at all.
