NEXT WEEK—DEO VOLANTE

by Joan Leotta

I’m supposed to drive to Raleigh,

2.5 hours from here and stay 

in a hotel alongside a creek

that sometimes floods

(as does the creek behind my house), 

to immerse myself in 

a sea of poety.

 

All of these plans could 

be swept away by the winds

and water of the pending hurricane.

 

So, why do I still plan?

Life had  taught me

all can change sooner than

the weatherman predicts,

sooner than my doctor thinks.

In an instant, crossing the street,

or stumbling on a sidewalk crack,

a new virus,

waiting at a bus stop

shopping in my favorite grocery

Someone’s car, my clumsiness,

germs, someone’s gun fueled anger,

all of these can take me

to the “other side.”

I know because my son

was hit by a car on a night 

he had plans,

so as I plan, I add, God Willing,
Deo Volante, to my notes,

knowing all could end now

but not worrying because once I step

to that other side, there will 

be loved ones who await me there.

Joan Leotta. Author, Story Performer

ANNIE

by Judith Terzi

Arm me, I'm a teacher. Give me the best

that you've got. A pistol won't cut it. With 30 kids

in a class, a couple of shots too few. I'll need

an AR-15 to prevent the next slaughter. And give me

time above all. I'll need time off to learn what I'm not

trained to do. And give me a double to plan all my

classes, correct all the math, the history, the English,

the science, geography. The reading. And give me

another one to attend all the conferences, the meetings.

The kids will get why their teacher's not there.

They heard those big men on TV declare

that teachers are the absolute key to keeping them safe.

Oh give me the guts to learn how to kill.

Make me a sharpshooter, an Annie, if you will.

Author of Museum of Rearranged Objects (Kelsay), as well as of five chapbooks, Judith Terzi's poetry appears in a wide array of journals and anthologies. Her poem "Ode to Malala Yousafzai" was read on an episode of BBC/Radio 3's Words and Music. A new chapbook, Now, Somehow, will appear later this year. She taught French for many years in Pasadena, California, as well as English at California State University, Los Angeles, and in Algiers, Algeria.

CONFIRMATION TIME

by Jane Patten

The process begins—

But confirmation

Will depend

Upon its closeness to the midterms 

Or what it costs to send

A moderate to the court,

Saturn lying opposite

The Sun or

The last of the Super Moon

Shining bright, 

Agreement from the Right

And well-laid plans

To obstruct and strike again.

After retiring and moving to Huntsville, Jane Patten decided to write about her adventures, including growing up in Delaware and her career as a teacher in rural Georgia. Her writings have been published in Out Loud HSV: A Year in Review anthologies, The New Verse News, Reckon Women, and Reckon Honey.