Photography © Glenn Bowie

 

Regression

We’re together again
tho’ you’ve regressed
to being my little sister,
this place reeking
of fear rising
off the small pond
cluttered with blooms.
It was night.
In the surrounding pale
our dog and cat
from yesteryear
of the beseeching eyes
craved food
and some attention;
I petted and promised them.
While you remained in the pond
in search of serious prey.
I felt it was time to leave.
Wading in fully clothed
I found you bobbing near
a statue and fountain
seen in plazas and squares.
But most surprising— no pull
from the pond
dragging on me from my clothes.
I swam further out
yet still there was barely
a foot of tepid water.

 

Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty year writer in all genres, and the author of 11 published books of fiction and poetry and 5 stage plays. Her play Crooked Heart will appear in the Origin Theatre Company’s May Play Festival in NYC. Office, her satirical Novel that takes place in a NYC skyscraper during the covid lockdown has been re-published as a Second Edition.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist, musician and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. The author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) from Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.