Issue 6: M.J. Iuppa

by Paula Lietz

The Bees

How many bees are there in a day?

                                  ~Neruda

We stood together

beneath the crab apple’s

wide umbrella: Listen, you said,

let’s not leave anything out –

And so we faced each other,

in that green afternoon light, paying

attention – the bees’ rhapsody 

swelled above our heads

like wishes, like shooting stars.

Departures

Is there anything in the world sadder

than a train standing in the rain?

                                   ~ Neruda

Sitting alone on a train in winter rain, the windows

cloud with waiting, yet inside this compartment

some decisions have been made.  I have taken

a seat with my back to the engine, wanting

to pull slowly away from where I’ve been.

The letter in my hands doesn’t change anything;

nonetheless I hold on to it.  I lean my head

against the cool glass and close my eyes for

a moment’s relief – the lurch of the train wakes

me to the sight of a couple who have settled in seats

across the aisle. He’s reading a newspaper. She’s next

to him – her gaze unblinking as she slowly rolls a string

of pearls between her fingertips – her lips poised

as if she were about to say something . . .

I shiver in a quick chill and pull my sweater tighter,

knowing each one of us is wrapped up in one thought.

M.J.Iuppa lives on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Her most recent chapbook is As the Crows Flies (Foothills Publishing, 2008) and second full-length collection, Within Reach, (Cherry Grove Collections, 2010). She is Writer-in-Residence and Director of the Arts Minor Program at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY.

Previous Page                       Table of Contents                Next Page