Joan McNerney’s poetry is found in many literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Poet Warriors, Blueline, and Halcyon Days.  Four Bright Hills Press Anthologies, several Poppy Road Review Journals, and numerous Spectrum Publications have accepted her work.  She has four Best of the Net nominations.  Her latest title is The Muse in Miniature available on Amazon.com and Cyberwit.net

tumbling

through time as
I lay thinking always
remembering
 
how this crapshoot of life
crushed my dreams spinning
me into an unlikely comedy
 
listening to a busy world
trains, ships, planes,
never ending hiss of cars
 
revved up motorcycles
loud televisions, shouts,
radios, alarms, sirens
.
shifting memories
over in my mind trying
to find some pattern
 
finally night, long, deep
and black covers me with
blankets of forgetfulness

Shadows

            This day unrolls before us.
            I want to scream out against
            flat skies, tear up coarse air.
 
            Put through my paces
            with long lists of minutiae.
            Acrid weariness crawls up spine.
            My eyelids droop shut.
 
            Today pulls us forward...
            pushing yesterday aside.
            Each night coming faster, faster.
            Winds blowing stronger, stronger.
 
            Cats howl in cold circles as
            ragged leaves cling to boughs.
            Rain falls like ebony ink
            under small pools of light.
 
            Darkness gathers close…
            my own silhouette black and
            tall slants downward following
            me through the long night.

Gloom

Night paints my room black
while I listen to raindrops.
 
So many dark secrets
written in its black ink.
 
Night is my highway to
lost dreams.  Cats in the alley
screech their wonton lust.