Meeting Where Departures Begin

Past the fast food joints and hubbub,
around those juggling tickets and lunch,
your welcoming smile drew me,
following the zigzag line to your table.

The children suffering by the sea
with heroin and psychosis,
our husbands who came and went
packed up and left
for Chicago or the mountains.

Where men in business suits
stalked by, checking departure times,
we spoke about miracles
in that busy train station.

You were saved from collisions
and the loss of your children,
steered a boat with one hand,
typing with the other.

The light slanted through glass
as we traded the devil’s country
for facing the music,
our native spirits applauding this meeting.

 

Carolyn Gregory’s poems have been published in American Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Off the Coast, Cutthroat, Seattle Review, Big River Review, Lost Coast Review and the Tower Journal. She has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and won a Massachusetts Cultural Council Award. Her first and second books, OPEN LETTERS (2009) and FACING THE MUSIC (2015), were published in Florida. Additionally, she has been a music and theatre reviewer for the past twenty years.

DL Polonsky is a Boston area artist, writer, and filmmaker. His caricatures have appeared in The Boston Herald and His written work includes the children’s book The Letter Bandits from T.B.W. Books.