{"id":13319,"date":"2024-01-04T20:53:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=13319"},"modified":"2024-01-05T01:47:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T01:47:45","slug":"two-poems-alise-versella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=13319","title":{"rendered":"TWO POEMS – Alise Versella"},"content":{"rendered":"

COFFEE BREAKS AND FAMILIAL ACHES<\/strong>
\n 
\nThe day
\nIs frenetic energy
\nNeutrons bouncing in a nucleus- the walls of this
\nKitchen
\nI stop to percolate
\nFilter the day through me like water through coffee beans
\n 
\nCaf\u00e9
\nBustelo takes me back
\nTo a particular time of day
\nThe way
\nMy father takes
\nThe Sambuca
\nTo an espresso cup, much too small for his callused and arthritic hand
\nPlaces a twirl of lemon curl
\nWet around the rim and drops it in
\n 
\nThe bitter bite, a harpoon
\nTo drown the days demons down
\nHis nerve damaged spine, slackening
\nBack relaxing
\nMy father, captain, loud at the helm
\nRendered
\nQuiet
\nFor a few hours in the afternoon
\n 
\nMost days we circumnavigate the globe of his moods
\nEach coffee cup or shot glass a different port
\nHeaven Hill after an argument
\nTwo cups of coffee or three
\nDepending
\nOn the previous night\u2019s sleep
\n 
\nMy father does not sleep
\nYears of shift work
\nShifting the meridians
\nOf his body
\n 
\nMost children
\nThink themselves polar opposites
\nOf their parents
\nBut I am finding
\nThe coffee is staining my teeth
\nIt becomes harder and harder for me to fall asleep
\nIs this predisposition
\nHereditary
\nThis need for bitter comfort,
\nMercy?
\n 
\nThe espresso
\nAnd expression
\nA confession
\nBecause I did not go to catholic school
\nCannot recite a Hail Mary
\nBut I am full of grace
\nIn this caffeinated state
\nCaf\u00e9 Bustelo, salvation
\nAs the scent of if fills my nostrils
\n 
\nFor a moment I breathe deeply
\nAnd relax, like my father, into the warmth of the sun
\nStreaming in through the
\nKitchen window
\nOn a hectic afternoon.
\n <\/p>\n

\n

TIME AND AGAIN<\/strong>
\n 
\nOne day the armies of little boys who saw no other future<\/p>\n

than to sacrifice their bodies for money
\nWill come home from the foreign countries
\nWhose languages and cultures they were ordered to burn
\nOne day old men will realize borders are pretend
\nGates we erected with spikes because white picket fences could not exist for them
\n 
\nOne day maybe in another decade little boys will stop fighting wars with little boys
\nReminiscent of days on playgrounds where toy airplanes were built from paper
\nCould not propel bombs the bombs were crayons
\n 
\nToday I can\u2019t read the paper
\nMost days I can\u2019t face the news
\nThis does not make me na\u00efve, a poet hippie who believes love will save us
\nIt won\u2019t
\nShe hasn\u2019t been loved back for a while she knows
\nIt takes more than love to save the world
\n 
\nBut these days I am afraid and my nerves jangle<\/p>\n

like plastic skeletons on Halloween
\nThey don\u2019t look like decoration anymore they look like warning
\nMy dead walk the streets each morning
\nSlowly dying at jobs we hate
\nBut they pay for our portion of the world
\nWe stand ready to defend our corner
\nI feel like I am suffocating to protect a corner patch of weeds
\nNothing has grown here for awhile
\n 
\nI do not have my father\u2019s green thumb
\nI do not know which seeds I have inherited but I do not want them
\nThe seeds are on fire
\nThe kids are not alright
\nI must admit I grow more terrified of walking to my car at night
\n 
\nI do not know what more to write
\nWe\u2019ve been typing out the same old ink
\nI argue in my own mind each night
\nTry to reconcile poetry as medicine
\nWhen it\u2019s medicine we cannot afford
\n 
\nI do not know anymore the point.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I will get out of bed
\nI will commit to do the work the only way I can
\nSo tomorrow, while the new decade burns, I will write a poem
\nAgain.
\n 
\nAlise Versella is twice nominated for the Pushcart, and A Best of the Net nominated contributing writer for Rebelle Society. She is the author of the full-length When Wolves Become Birds <\/em>(Golden Dragonfly Press 2021) and the forthcoming chapbook Maenads of the 21st Century<\/em> (Dancing Girl Press). She has been published widely in such journals as the Opiate, Crack the Spine, Steam Ticket, Penumbra Literary and Arts Journal, Luna Arcana, Soup Can Magazine, The Poeming Pigeon, Circle Show, White Stag Journal, El Portal, Evening Street Review, Press Pause Press,<\/em> and Soundings East<\/em>. Versella has worked with Women\u2019s Spiritual Poetry, whose latest anthology, Goddess: When She Rules, raised money for the Malala Fund. Kirkus has called her \u201c\u2026[A] boundlessly energetic and promising technician [who] crafts a unique blend of the symbolist and the confessional; a talented, promising newcomer.\u201d She performs throughout New Jersey and across Zoom screens and has taught Poetry as Power in local libraries and schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COFFEE BREAKS AND FAMILIAL ACHES   The day Is frenetic energy Neutrons bouncing in a nucleus- the walls of this Kitchen I stop to percolate Filter the day through me like water through coffee beans   Caf\u00e9 Bustelo takes me back To a particular time of day The way My father takes The Sambuca To [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[447],"class_list":["post-13319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-art-by-michael-leu-woman-with-cat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13319"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13503,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319\/revisions\/13503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}