Terminal Solstice

In June of 79′ you carried me up the worn staircase

to your beige apartment door.
A dreamy toddler,
pleasantly naïve of the disastrous September

that stalked us.
It mocked us as did the stagnant air,
my fresh hands grasped your neck of black stiff stubble.
In a Syracuse twang you sang me a lullaby,
softly,

gently now,
“Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.”
It floated in that hot burnt umber ozone.
By September it had turned cobalt and crimson.
Your grave clipped my wings.
A broken crow,
flitting about with no hope of rescue,
no splinting.
A failure to thrive.
But back in June we were whole,
both You
              and I.
Its perilous to drift.
Its grave to dream.
Those shadows of possibilities waft in the dog day air.
But for a glimpse,
in minuet suspension.
You and I,
together,
whole,
were present in the same Summer zephyr.

Jessica Weyer Bentley is on the We Save Lives Speaker’s Panel. She is also an  Author/Poet. Her first collection of poetry, Crimson Sunshine, was published in May 2020 by AlyBlue Media. She has contributed work to several publications for the Award-Winning Book Series, Grief Diaries, including Poetry and Prose, and Hit by a Drunk Driver. Jessica’s work has been anthologized in Women Speak Vol. 6 (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions), Summer Gallery of Shoes (Highland Park Poetry), Common Threads 2020 Edition (Ohio Poetry Association), Appalachian Witness Volume 24 (Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel), Made and Dream (Of Rust and Glass) 2021, and Psalms of the Alien Buddha Part 2 2022. Her work has also appeared in online blogs including Global Poemic and Fevers of the Mind Poetry Showcase 2022. She recently became a 2022 Fevers of the Mind Wolfpack Poet Contributor. Jessica currently resides in Northwest Ohio.