Breath & Shadow
Summer 2020 - Vol. 17, Issue 2
"Working At Life"
written by
Joanne Alfano
Denial, overeating, and poor sleep
helped me tolerate the craziness.
I survived; the craziness thrived.
I work with a gunslinger’s stride
meet meaningless milestones
and bury all logic to the contrary.
I am not hardwired for love
[nor for anything else that is
growth or nurturing]
I must work at it, create an
artificial intelligence by
repeating the same solutions.
The day is over. I don’t want to
pray or contemplate spiritual things
I want to bed-hide and disappear
My head hurts from the passage of mime,
the silent fear that erodes from within,
and the real tension of having no answers.
It is only one simple jeopardy
of being human
Joanne Alfano is a cisgender, over-65, disabled and morbidly obese woman. For her, writing is art, craft, creation, recreation, necessity, passion, sedation, seduction, microscope, telescope, celebration, eulogy, and memoir. She has published poems in
several anthologies: Sea Glass Hearts; Poets to Come: A Poetry Anthology; NOVA Bards: An Anthology of Northern Virginia Poetry (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 editions), Poets Anonymous: 25 and Beyond, and forthcoming editions of Heart14 and Backchannels Journal. After a federal service career in the Washington, DC area, she retired, ran away from home, and moved to Lakeland, Florida with her life partner. She enjoys family, writing and reading, old movies, and creative play with her granddaughter.