The Cruel Radiance of What Is
it snows
we walk as one heartbeat
flakes melt on our hands
our children’s tongues
an oyster sky of smoke
fire and sunsets burn
buildings
fall
old woman in a babushka
drops her hand-laced
handkerchief in her garden
bodies lie in bright-colored
parkas jeans as if napping
bikes baffled by their wheels
still spinning
a ballerina unties her frayed toe
shoes dresses in fatigues
as “Shchedryk sings”
in her body as she leaps over
a loaf of fresh-baked bread left
on a park bench
a bullet
crumples her to the bitter
earth a world of cathedral
bells toll
cows scream
Christine Penney lives in New York City. She spent many years acting in the Bay Area and in too many black boxes in Manhattan. She co-wrote and performed a one-woman show on Kaethe Kollwitz, an artist/activist whose life spanned World War I and World War II.
When she retired she dove into writing fiction and poetry. She has published her poems with Porter Gulch Review, Hole in the Head and Amethyst Review. Out now is four of her haikus in an anthology published with Moonstone Arts.
The Marbled Sigh 