SUMMER POETRY SPECIAL
★ ★ ★ ★
JOAN McNERNEY
Beach
My mind is an ocean
where swimmers, surfers,
sun worshippers cavort.
Long salty hair
held between
their teeth.
Flourishing
wild flowered gowns
…streams of silk
waves of taffeta
splashy lace.
They sail through
my watery face
combing my eyes
whispering in my ears.
Alone, under a pointillist sky.
Gulls flying around me.
Black waters touched by
moon of vague prophecy.
White Heat
This dry moment
we lay in sweat beds.
Limp flowers turned
into themselves.
Memories of a white room
burning pains…shunts, stains.
Lightning scorches
skies with hot zigzags.
Will it ever rain, when
will cicadas be silent?
Throat of bird
swollen, screaming.
Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary zines such as Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Halcyon Days and included in Bright Hills Press, Kind of A Hurricane Press and Poppy Road Review anthologies. She has been nominated four times for Best of the Net.
