Something about Affection

We are walking
in the meadow

when a rabbit leaps
between your legs,

and you feel his fur
brush your calves

and I imagine
I feel it too.

 

Something Else about Affection

You have a right hand
and a wrong
like a man playing hearts.

The Queen of Spades
wants everything
as queens often do.

You don’t like games
though you came from
a family of card sharks.

Rook was your poker,
no money, just nasty bickering
about bad plays.

It’s a how you learn
another’s moves—
how you learn to lose.

Love, oh love.

 

Lois Marie Harrod’s 16th and most recent collection Nightmares of the Minor Poet appeared in June 2016 from Five Oaks. Her chapbook And She Took the Heart appeared in January 2016, and Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (Cherry Grove Press) and the chapbook How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (Dancing Girl Press) appeared in 2013. She is continually published in literary journals and online ezines from American Poetry Review to Zone 3. She teaches Creative Writing at The College of New Jersey.

Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of Poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.