Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty-year writer and the author of 11 published books of fiction and poetry and 5 stage plays. She has been nominated 21 times for the Pushcart Prize in both fiction and poetry. Her play THE CROOKED HEART concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Another play, LADY IN A POST BOX, co-written with poet and writer Ciaran O’Driscoll, will also premiere in a staged-reading this year, again at The Irish Rep. Her satirical Novel OFFICE was re-printed as a Second Edition. A new Novel will be out in the winter. Susan Isla is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review.
http://www.susantepper.com

The Hunted

By Susan Isla Tepper
 
I
Through my window
during the tea
a robin plump and sated
posed itself on the ledge.
I dared not move a hair.
Night rains
flooding the gardens
and worms cascading
like the hunted
over crumbly walls
(everything wobbled)
 
After, stepping out, counting;
an old habit—
Basket of buns and other bits
over one arm;
embroidered tea towel
crosses & lyres adorn
Gets folded just so.

Scouring the lanes
I heard no trilling call.
 

II
A single lantern lights the kitchen
darkness on parade.
He pads up behind
in soft shushing shoes,
pokes my shoulder, saying
how little it takes
how little to throw me
off the narrow road.
 
 
III
Would that be my penance for the day?
 
 
IV
He and I— alike and not at all—
out of some dark currency
share the mask
sensing the moment in synch:
time to crouch behind a lorry
duck around a chimney
turn the corner and run
run before the blast.
  
V
Scarlet Robin, your presence here
today through my window
a sweet absolution.
 
VI
Perhaps you can feel
the pulsing coming off me
though opposite you
just thin glass
on the other side.

Judith A. Lawrence was the editor/publisher of Lilly Press and River Poets Journal for several decades. She is also a prolific painter and has had numerous poems published in anthologies and literary magazines.
She has five published books, Point of Comfort, a memoir, Uncharted Territories, a book of 20 short stories, The Metamorphoses of Connie Toscano, a novella, Remembrance, a book of 50 poems, and The IRS Chronicles, a comedic take on IRS Examiner Training, all available on amazon.com. A 6th book, The Lafourche River Murder, a mystery, is scheduled to be published by June, 2024.
She is currently working on a book of short poems, Nuggets, containing her watercolors, under her nom de plume, Juniper Rue.
Judith lives in Florida with her pet Piccolo, a spoiled Shih Tzu.