Susan Isla Tepper has two new books of fiction coming out in the spring and winter of this year. She presented her darkly comic play CLANDESTINE in an Equity Premiere Staged-reading, hosted by SHOPTALK, on June 10 at EAG Guild Hall Theatre, NYC. Her most current Novel “Hair of a Fallen Angel” was published by Spuyten Duyvil Books. A twenty-year writer, she’s written 12 published books of fiction and poetry and 7 stage plays. Honors include 24 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 music video for her latest novel at: https://youtu.be/W2HVIc4NrqY

LOCKED UP

By Susan Isla Tepper

Hardly air
in here
the babies placed
on the floor
to gulp some
through the space.
The mothers cry

I wonder if the tiny
little baby hearts
are beating double/triple time

Cursing breaks out
violence of the sort that
smashes anything
in its path.
~~~

After a couple days
two babies gasping
another stone dead.

Some women make a circle
around the torn mother.
What will be done
with the child?
~~~
Food gets slid under
water in crinkly foil
bowls like stray dogs

some days the hands
push food and water
under
then pull it away
back and forth taunting us

—never enough
People claw to get the meal.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist, and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.