Photography © Jennifer Matthews

 

The Ice Cream Palace

We didn’t know it was the last call.
We savored the free samples.
We’d come a long way,
to a place of green mountains
and a sky of wildflowers, north of Montpelier.
This was our temporal indulgence —
chocolate, salt, and sugar.
I will sit at your bedside,
in your last benediction.
I am thus sanctified. You remain
the most of that sacrament.

 

Meg Smith is a writer, journalist, dancer and events producer living in Lowell, Mass. In addition to previously appearing in Oddball Magazine, her work has recently appeared in The Cafe Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Poetry Bay, and many more. She is the author of five poetry books and a short fiction collection, The Plague Confessor.

Poet/Photographer 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.