Susan Isla Tepper has a new Novel just out titled “Hair of a Fallen Angel” from Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC. A twenty-year writer, she’s authored 12 books of fiction and poetry and 5 stage plays. Honors include 21 Pushcart Prize Nominations. 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. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review. A YouTube video for her new novel: https://youtu.be/W2HVIc4NrqY
Long, Untidy
By Susan Isla Tepper
Beyond the ragged fence
beat up by ocean swells,
the tides rise and fall
stirring their discontent.
A pale sun hovers in its winter sky.
You have drunk yourself
into a slump
bent forward
in the hard back chair
near snuffed grey embers;
cradling head in hands.
This hearth / heart
offers no solace or warmth.
Can you not
for just a moment
see the lights outside
on the trees I dressed
to sparkle
like dancing at a winter ball.
For your convenience—always
your convenience
the radio has been set
to a low hum, as if
a holy Mass in progress, is done:
the body laid to rest.
Stop your whimpering
make the sign of the cross
Honor thy father and thy mother.
If I were a crow I’d eat out your heart.
Winter, I fear, is going to be
a long untidy business.
Were it summertime—
I could wade the low tide
reverse storm surge
clear on out to where
the sandbar pokes up, shining
free of the ocean’s weight
Climbing onto it— free!
spreading my arms wide
waiting for things to settle;
waiting things out.
Judith A. Lawrence was the editor/publisher of Lilly Press and River Poets Journal for several decades. She is also a prolific painter, and writer of fiction, memoir, and poetry. Originally from Philadelphia, PA, she now resides in Florida. She has published five chapbooks of poems, written a volume of short stories, and a recent memoir titled “Point of Comfort.” She is currently completing a murder/mystery novel and a book of short poems containing her watercolors, under her nom de plume Juniper Rue.
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