Dear Reader,
I would like to share my poems that were published in an online international literary and visual arts magazine on October 4, 2023.
Fish Out Water
Dad showed his interest
in us kids by clipping
articles from the New York Times
Clipping was safer
than kissing, or brushing
flesh on flesh
The coelacanth, a fish thought
to be extinct was rediscovered
trapped in a fisherman’s net
We envision his lunge
eons ago from sea to land,
unwieldy body, sprouting
lungs and appendages
Like Dad, unmoored,
an outsider, searching
for his spot on earth
Dad, an odd fish. We
five kids agree, days
after the newsprint fades
Today we ask: what drove
the coelacanth from the sea?
What spurred Dad
to leave us, his family?
Perhaps it was curiosity
that led him to risk an
unraveling, the long,
arduous journey
to end in a curious,
dubious finale.
Muse
I train my muse daily.
Her wings light as a fairy’s
so I coax and treat her gingerly
to earn her visits frequently.
How mightily with unpredictability,
she alights and ever too soon
flits away: turns lights out like
a June bug taking off July.
The Entertainer
He is always proving to someone that he exists.
On the ship’s deck,
at the 6am breakfast
he aims to entertain the entire round table
of six, blurry-eyed passengers
with his whiskered joke.
Suddenly their eyelids lift
because the punch line is coming,
racing around the corner
outruns the first cup of coffee
to win the race and fill
the passengers and the entertainer
to the brim.
Please send your comments or questions to jsimon145@gmail.com.
