Undertaking by Susan Shea

Nina Baldwin from her Women Gathering series
from her website

 

That gathering was a downpour
of easygoing, so why did I see
too many wanting sunbeams

why did I feel drained

when it was over, watching
the hostess sweep the floor,
maybe hoping we might get
the hint that it was time
to move along
like all good fragments

Susan Shea is a retired school psychologist who was raised in New York City, and now lives in a forest in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  Her poems have been accepted by Ekstasis, Across the Margin,  Feminine Collective, New English Review, and others.

Bobby Darin sings the blues by Mark Young

 

Bobby Darin, 1959
General Artists Corporation (management)/photographer: "Bruno of Hollywood",
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

from The Codicils

His polonaise
was a work of 
some bravura,
taking the 
framework of 
the national 
dance, adding 
augmented & 
diminished 
chords in the 
root positions, 
ending with a 
feminine cadence 
excerpted from 
Macaroni & Cheese: 
52 Recipes. The
balance struck,
yin & yang
maintained—
there is no 
such thing 
as gender-
less culture.

 

***

Mark Young’s most recent book is Ley Lines II,  recently published by Sandy Press & available through Amazon.