Queens Reflections Photo Essay

21st Century woman
Slips outside her door
At the midnight hour
To feed the birds
(She wouldn’t want to wake them)
To find space to think
Just she and the moon
In a slice of solitude
And the city fades away into the night.

Search for moonlight
Waiting impatiently
For a diaphanous cloud.

Hoping to have my name in the Book of Life
I throw money at society’s problems
But find no catharsis
Hate greed and corruption persist
Purging may require
The effort of presence and perseverance

Can I take
Just one bite
Of this alien life
Without succumbing
To its spell
Forfeiting myself
And all I love?
Nothing ventured, the Snake said

I live on a street
With a number
The kids say its meaning
Is homicide
I’ve never done that crime
And yet the dead are all around me
You don’t have to shoot ‘em
Stab ‘em
Poison ‘em
Just live long enough
And Time will do the deed.

SPITE

Women on this street
Plant flowers just to spite
The urban concrete.

Bio and Links

-Sheryl Singleton Lynch

is a poet and essayist who lives in New York City.  Her work has appeared in several journals, as well as in seven self-published collections available through Amazon, the latest, Folks and The Adventures of Lovemore Fearless (In No Particular Order) were released Summer 2022. In a previous life Sheryl worked as a telecommunications specialist and still shows signs of being a “nerdy girl.” Visit her website at sherylsingletonlynch.weebly.com.