VISITOR
By Jessica Alverson

The moon is a shadow in the blue sky

Grey-white apparition looming
In darkness
It will be light

Same neighborhood walk
Buildings
Streets
Sidewalk carrier of 1000 paths

The west coast music of 1990s
Tells my body to walk
Tells my mind to write
Tells the hand to tell the pen

“Write about the moon”

So I write-
“The moon is a shadow in the blue sky”
in the hot sun of a patio
smelling of onions
buzzing with flies

Visitor

Skin
as bumpy as an avocado
at the whim of winter
or the felt presence
of a ghost.

A memory-

that presses the nerves
like a doorbell
and enters
before you can answer
it stands there
with its luggage
returning from its holiday
from behind the ribcage

or

from behind the eyes
longing for semblance
before it turns
and drifts away
into the dark
and you remember
all the other things
you have to do
like laundry
or shopping.

Half Truths

She told her parents
they were going to the movies.
He picked her up in his Dad’s Chevy,
honking twice from the driveway
she ran out to meet him.
He drove her to the parking lot
Where Lee and Stan
And all the other townies
Drank warm beer on tailgates
Taking bets
on who could chug the fastest
Taking bets
on who could throw the can the farthest
Taking bets
on who could get Terri Mason
In the backseat first.
He found a spot
and shifted the Chevy
into park
left the radio on

“Wait here,” he patted her leg. She smoothed her skirt.

Through the windshield
she stared at the endless pavement before her.
Counted security lights
like rosary beads.
Each breathe
a tiny prayer.

About the Author:

author

Jessica Alverson has been a poet and writer for most of her life and is currently working as a behavior analyst helping individuals with challenging behavior and autism reach their maximum potential. She has published poems in Damselfly Press and in the Nourishment for the Spirit: A Collection of Poems and Short Reflections and Live Poets Society of NJ AmericanHigh School Poets Regional Winners Winter 2000. She is grateful to have been an active member of a writing group over the past 9 years that has provided continual support and encouragement. When she’s not writing, Jessica enjoys birding, traveling to new places, hiking, disc golf, and strategic board games.