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Breath & Shadow

Summer 2020 - Vol. 17, Issue 2

"Sometimes In The Evening"

written by

Marilyn McVicker

Sometimes, in the evening, I get the urge

          to go to a poetry slam, share a bucket

          of popcorn at the latest movie,

          go to the Orange Peel and dance all night.


          Sometimes, on a summer evening

          I get the urge to put my hair up, go out

          for a root beer float, go down to the harbor,

          sip frozen daiquiris, strut my stuff.


          Sometimes, when the shadows lengthen

          at the end of a long day, I want to see

          familiar faces, share a bottle of wine,

          good-natured belly laughs, be among

          those who love me, be a part of the world,

          see, hear, touch, feel, smell and taste.


          You would think, after all these years

          of isolation and solitude, these urges

          would fade.

Marilyn McVicker had her first poem published in 1980. Her poetry has most recently been published in Kakalak, Earth’s Daughters, Front Porch Review, Red Clay Review, The Prompt, several anthologies, and other periodicals. She has published articles and essays, a non-fiction book, Sauna Detoxification Therapy, with McFarland & Co., in 1997, and a poetry chapbook, Some Shimmer of You, with Finishing Line Press, in

2014. She has read her poetry at Western Carolina University’s Literary Festival, the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, Malaprop’s Bookstore, local community colleges, libraries, and other venues. She is a member of the North Carolina Poetry Society, and mentored under Dr. Richard Chess through their Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series in 2012. She continues to work with Pat Riviere-Seel, past president of the

NCPS, and author of three poetry collections. Marilyn’s fascination with words and self-expression stems from her previous career as a solo flutist and music educator. She

retired to a remote cove in the rural mountains of western North Carolina in 1997.

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