The tide rises The coast shimmers And I smile and sigh And recall Coming out of those waves Chilled and ready Pushed by the sea Tumbling with crusty eyelids Salty mouth Skin glistening Gasping, afraid and excited
Our ancestors arrived that way Delivered into the world Sprouting legs and walking like fresh, damp foals Around the beach, up the mountains, across the plains Their Manifest Destiny to be Reptilian no more, now furry, legged, live-birth beings Clannish, while peeking at the stars Barking, and drinking water from fresh lakes Dining on flesh, baying at the moon
And still, we remember our becoming The bloody patches, the white linen, air surrounding us Tides of atmosphere Parting it lets us emerge, holy, hungry, searching Violent and beautiful Thrown Abandoned Taken in Floating on the breeze, our slippery skin molts Our many toed feet burrow into the sand Upright and alert Faced with the certainty of change
Pain Becomes
Pain does the laundry folding sheets into small, tight squares stacked and ready
Pain serves dinner little Bento boxes of foods separated and safe
Pain sweeps the floor fast and with fury bracing for the next time
Pain takes nightly pills set in a row on the counter arranged to manage, not cure to maintain, daily
Pain lays down carefully eyes close slowly all is orange swirls and tingles
Pain goes deep allowing slumber surrendering to nothingness
Then the movie starts smell of popcorn sound of hushed chatter a slurp of a drink
Pain has become a heroine a cowgirl a freedom fighter a discovered relic
Pain morphs, pushes, requires constricts and expands Like a plot that stretches and surprises Like breath that keeps on coming
BIO
Susan Jennifer Polese, LPC NCC is an American poet, journalist, crisis counselor and award-winning playwright whose poems are included in the Writing off The Walls exhibit at Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art. Her plays are seen regionally and at such venues as La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, HERE Performing Arts Center, The Midtown International Theatre Festival, and Planet Connections Festivity in Manhattan, NY. Trained in New York at The Wonderhorse Theatre, Herbert Berghof Studio, and Hunter College she has taught writing through Purchase College, Axial Theatre Company and has facilitated “Playwriting in Paradise” in Key West, Florida. Her work is fueled through social justice and is often performed as fundraisers/awareness enhancers for non-profits. Susan is a member of The International Centre for Women Playwrights and Theatre Without Borders. She attended La Mama’s International Playwright Retreat in Umbria, Italy and was a resident-artist at Bethany Arts Community, 2020. She is published in Alexander Street Contemporary Drama Collection. Susan is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and New York Women in Film & Television.
