Adriana DiGennaro

Elizabeth Volpe

Lyn Lifshin

Simon Perchik

Gary Charles Wilkens

Dorianne Laux

Impromptu Meeting of the Dead

A moth vibrates at the window
stamping itself on the January pane
flickering, an old movie reel
two of them now, they flutter gray
against black glass
they want the bare bulb
of the lamp on my nightstand
the wall barely functions
to divide this room from the season
the drafts would make you weary

outside, inside, windowbox, bed
the narrow things within them move
but are dead
crisp leaves cling
to a dried-out vine in the planter outside
they move so uncertain
this disturbance
mocks the moths who quiver
with a violence similar
to shaking, tear-torn people

and they keep coming back, flapping
open wings and wanting, searching
it's frigid out
shouldn't bugs be underground now
instead of wanting sixty watts to see by

shouldn't they be spared
or are they just ghosts of the dead
like old books say

I have eight lamps and twelve candles
in this room
to invoke my own spirit
if I could speak to the moths I'd say
what is this we suffer through
did all the freebird souls fly south
leaving the half-dead
to their lesser suns
and am I a fellow ghost you visit
am I as desperate, with ugly wings
of chalk

A member of the Academy of American Poets, Adriana DiGennaro received her B.A. in literature and creative writing from Bennington College where she studied under Mark Wunderlich and Mark Poirier. Her first book of poetry, Peripheral Vision, was published in June 2001 by Writers Ink Press. Her second book, Acts of Contrition, will be published in Spring 2007 by Windstorm Creative. Ms. DiGennaro's poetry has been featured in Red River Review, BigCityLit, PoetryBay, Merge, The Aurora Review, Poetz, Boston Literary Review, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Tryst, Ancient Heart (United Kingdom), Eclectica, City Writers Review, Poetry Midwest, Esopian, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Falling Star Magazine, Flutter, Wonder Writings, Long Island Quarterly, Triplopia, Clean Sheets, Sidereality, Southern Ocean Review (New Zealand), Perigee and The Improper Hamptonian. At just 17, she was on Red River Review's 2001 list of nominees for a Pushcart Prize. Her work is also included in the following published anthologies: The Light of City and Sea (Street Press 2006), an anthology of Suffolk County poetry edited by Suffolk County Poet Laureate Daniel Thomas Moran; Southshire Pepper-Pot: A Literary Feast With Culinary Refrains edited by Cris DiMarco (Windstorm Creative, 2006); In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself edited by Marlow Peerse Weaver (MWE Press, 2005), Whispers of Inspiration: An Anthology of New American Poets edited by Darlene and Steven Manchester (Sunpiper Press, September 2005); Ancient Heart Magazine Poetry Anthology Vol. III edited by Richard van der Draaij (Ancient Heart Press, 2005).

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