Opus Pause
I sense my pages turn before I see
the message written there for me to read.
My short sight yearns for ageless reverie.
The light is dim, I lie, and glance briefly
to grab more time to dance with my own lead.
As pages turn too fast, I fail to see
when false steps trip and send me to my knees.
Remorse and wisdom both I fail to heed.
My short sight clings to ageless reverie.
The birthstone days, each anniversary
push hard to bring discernment to my need.
The decades quickly turn, and now I see
frail bones, hair falling: loss the enemy.
This half cup teases hands that end palsied,
a heart that churns for ageless reverie.
Yet still I sing without finding a key
and pass the book for other eyes to read.
I sense more pages turn but all I see
are sightings learned in ageless reverie.
Bonnie and the Great Depression
She had a mind for hairpin turns and sighed
when Clyde’s first thrill-ride spun them out of town.
The road ahead sped far and free and wide.
Their ways veered fast. Hot cash, quick gin supplied
his fuel while her dim wishful heart cooled down.
She paid a mind to hairpin turns and tried
to hold the ring (her compromise) but shied
when nightmares crashed the merry-go-round.
Their road ahead sped fast, not free, not wide.
The cycle held and straight roads were denied
and breath: his flat line track just looped around.
Now hard against the hairpin turns, she tried
to navigate for steady, sober rides.
His reckoning dead-set, he swerved and frowned.
Feel how this road leads far and free, he lied.
[An intervening verse—Reader’s aside:
Hey Bonnie, quit careening off that clown!
The road hog’s lost…and something else has died.]
She stepped clear then and let the years collide
and burn as Clyde drove to his next ghost town.
She thanked her Reader and then turned and sighed:
the road ahead stretched far and free and wide.
Jean Biegun, retired special education teacher, lives in California after a lifetime in the Midwest. Poems have appeared in many publications including Amethyst Review, Mobius: The Poetry Magazine, Muddy River Poetry Review, Soul-Lit, Eastern Iowa Review, World Haiku Review, Door is a Jar and Gyroscope Review. Her chapbook Hitchhikers to Eden will be published by Kelsay Books in 2022.
Sparks of Calliope 