POETRY FEATURED ARTIST CONTRIBUTORS GUIDELINES ABOUT TIMELINE
Marjorie Maddox


This Time, Not Prom

"Shopping—she hates it!" the teen told her boyfriend's mother.
"Will you take me?" She was not the mother. The real one
cried two weeks (a month?), the glitzy milestone almost-stolen.
That role was hers: to gift a gown extravagantly pretty, to glimpse
     the joy.

The not-mother said she would take her. Would she?
Failure: a sequin dress not chosen with the real mother there. Hurt—
that was hers: to not gift a gown extravagantly pretty, not glimpse
     the joy.
Finally, the other woman saw this, stepped back, recognized

what felt like failure/hurt: a sequin dress not chosen with the real
     mother there.
There would be other firsts—jobs, marriage, children—but they felt
     far away.
Finally, the other woman saw it, stepped back, recognized
what was not hers to want or give: an unrepeatable gift of time.

There might be other firsts—jobs, marriage, children—but they felt
     far away.
Eventually, they'd arrive. The mother didn't shop herself; this was
     not that.
Time was hers to want and give, unrepeatable gift of memory.
Later, the young woman asked the real mother, "Will you take me?

I don't shop myself. But this is not that. I want to be together."
     So they arrived.
"We're shopping memories," the young woman told her boyfriend
     and his mother.
Later, the woman and her mother laughed, "That was painless.
     Shall we shop again?"
This was theirs to give: to gift a memory, to glimpse the changed
     offerings of time."




Memphis

With cameras on, they aim their fists. He screams,
"What reason?" He pleads. The armed men explain
nothing. They are the law. Their actions need
no meaning, no spoken explanation

of the rage that beats and pounds. The others
stand in silence—or worse—look down, chit chat
about the latest game. He calls, "Mother!"
Someone props him up, snaps a pic. Like that

a man becomes a corpse. Three days: he's dead.
No rising from the blood. The ones who swore
to guard and serve—just murderers instead.
They claimed he fled. The watching cameras bore

another story. Even so the men
cite innocence. And here we are again.

Also appearing in And Who Is My Neighbor? St. Andrew's Episcopal Church 2024 Poetry Contest Anthology (July 2024).

































AUTHOR BIO

Commonwealth University English Professor Marjorie Maddox has published 16 collections of poetry—including How Can I Look It Up When I Don't Know How It's Spelled? Spelling Mnemonics and Grammar Tricks and Seeing Things (2024), as well as the ekphrastic collaborations Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For (with Karen Elias) and In the Museum of My Daughter's Mind (with daughter Anna Lee Hafer, 2023 Royal Dragonfly Book Award in photography/fine arts) and others. Maddox also has published a story collection, 4 children's books, and the anthologies Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and the forthcoming Small Earthly Space (with Karen Elias, Shanti Arts, 2025) and Keystone (co-editor with Jerry Wemple, PSU Press). Assistant editor of Presence, she hosts WPSU's NPR Poetry Moment. www.marjoriemaddox.com.



POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

Grace Bauer
Hilary Biehl
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas
Julia Griffin
A. A. Gunther
Katie Hartsock
Ruth Hoberman
Babo Kamel
Jean L. Kreiling
Lavinia Kumar
Jenna Le
Marjorie Maddox
Mary Grace Mangano
Kathleen McClung
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
T. R. Poulson
Richelle Slota
Linda Stern
Myrna Stone
Gail White
Amanda Williamsen
Joyce Wilson

NEWS

The Poetry by the Sea Conference ran successfully this year from May 21-24, and is scheduled next year from May 27-30 (Note: the week AFTER Memorial Day).

FEATURED ARTIST
Anna Lee Hafer is a studio artist based in the Philadelphia area whose work is heavily influenced by such famous surrealist painters as René Magritte, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso, all of whom strove to build their own realities through small glimpses into a particularly confusing, but utterly unique worldview that dictates its own specific set of instructions. With references to the laws and physics of Alice's Wonderland, the artist challenges the audience's inherent understanding of perspective, reality, and universal order.

In her work, Hafer pours and layers paint to create dimension and texture, mixing different styles and colors onto each other until they produce a 3D effect. Through marker and pencil that create shadow, she further enhances these forms and separates them from the background. Heavier layers and thicker brushstrokes in the foreground of her work push the painting toward the viewer, whereas the thinner layers and small brushstrokes in the background, elongate the space and push away from the viewer. By juxtaposing interior and exterior elements, Hafer makes the audience question whether they are looking at something inside or outside.

For additional information, please visit www.hafer.work.

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