Blue Devil Compulsion
I dare to bask in the wake of you, your experience of a thousand little things. Broken glass. Malt whiskey. Riven seams. To witness the eclipse as it casts away, to ruminate that labor, embracing the shards. So intimate, so dear, I procure a thousand cuts. Mae On any given Saturday at the corner of the local IGA, Mae would pace as she grasped her ivory clutch purse, cursing the brisk wind anticipating her next ride. She would step inside his Chevy Impala to earn her first pack of Marlboros, a rosy plastic barrette in her matted hair. A 52-year-old deaf mute with no other way to persevere, destitute and flailing through the rotted planked gaps of society. She would stroll the coal tracks to our back screen door, giggling as she gazed toward the little ones playing house. She caressed a baby doll against her lime polyester blouse. In this twinkling of glee, she eluded the reality of her next meal, then would steel away back to her space, of brake lights on hushed backstreets, another day of revolving existence. A rusted Ford would stop to sway open the heavy steel door, Just one more day. Mae, just one more. Archer Park He had my skate key, hand in hand floating, to Bon Jovi. We were living on a prayer, there in that desolate landscape- puppy love against poverty. We pushed against the despair, a pair in love’s delusion. That steel building and wood floor kept at bay the decaying storefronts, set against the aging tracks- permanent coal gons sprouting golden rods. Bio: Jessica Weyer Bentley is an poet, author, and public speaker. Her first collection of poetry, Crimson Sunshine, was published in May 2020 by AlyBlue Media. She has contributed work to several publications for the Award-Winning Book Series, Grief Diaries, including Poetry and Prose, and Hit by a Drunk Driver. Jessica’s work has been anthologized in Women Speak Vol. 6 (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions), Summer Gallery of Shoes (Highland Park Poetry), Common Threads 2020 Edition (Ohio Poetry Association), Appalachian Witness Volume 24 (Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel) and Made and Dream (Of Rust and Glass), Psalms of the Alien Buddha Part 2 (Alien Buddha) and online blogs including Global Poemic and Fevers of the Mind Poetry Showcase and a Wolfpack Contributor 2022. She recently was featured in her first magazine entitled Summer 2022 (Of Rust and Glass). She is currently penning her second collection, Down Below Where the Canary Sings slated to be out in 2023. Jessica currently resides in Northwest Ohio.
Fevers of the Mind 