poetry

Love in the Time of Coronavirus

/ Benn Bell / 1 Comment

 

So, here I am sitting in the park

waiting for the sunrise

and this beautiful girl approaches me from the rear

I turn around to look at her

she smiles and I smile back

she keeps her distance

but we have a nice conversation

she has long blonde hair tied back in a pony tail

and wears a baseball cap skewed to one side

she is wearing plaid shorts and sneakers

this almost never happens to me anymore

she turns to leave and I wave goodbye

she waves back

here we are in the time of Coronavirus

another opportunity lost in

a fleeting moment of time.

Lethal Force

/ Benn Bell / 2 Comments

Lethal Force

Her eyes were wanton

Black, piercing

From her throat down to her toe

She was lethal

“I’m going to tease my hair,”

She said

“Why don’t you scare it when you’re done,”

I said

She laughed

I laughed

We all had a good laugh.

TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE

/ Benn Bell / 11 Comments

 

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I have crossed oceans of time

To be with you

There must be

Time enough for love….

Two hundred years for each breast

A thousand for the rest

And if we find rubies by the Rhine

So much better love can find

The way to stitch our hearts

For we are greater than our parts.

 

BEAUTIFUL

/ Benn Bell / 2 Comments

A Guest Post By Winter Chatman

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Author Winter Chatman

 

She be look’n at me like I ain’t nothin’

Cutt’n me down, My eyes have ears

I’m beautiful, you know? Really somethin’

 

Sixteen and pregnant , shoot, that ain’t nothin’

My life  My block  I have no fear

She be lookn’ at me like I ain’t nothin’

 

I ain’t cried, it ain’t no sin, nothin’

She can stare  My eyes have ears

I’m beautiful, you know? Really somethin’

 

I got straight A’s, that’s really somethin’

I ain’t stupid , you know, I can hear

She be look’n at me like I ain’t nothin

 

My college degree, that’s really something

For my life  From my block  That’s rare

I’m beautiful, you know, Really something

 

My Imani child grows, beautiful, really something

One flower in a bush so rare,

They keep looking at me like I am nothing

 

I am beautiful, you know, really something.

 

Penn State Literary Magazine 2003