Lisa Wiley Verse-Virtual 2016 August

August 2016

I studied with Billy Collins July 2013 in the Southampton Writers Conference on Long Island. I live with my husband, three children and two orange cats in Buffalo, NY where I teach creative writing and composition at Erie Community College. When I'm not running, I'm writing. My two chapbooks include My Daughter Wears Her Evil Eye to School (The Writer's Den, 2015) and Chamber Music (Finishing Line Press, 2013).

Banana Pepper Soup
- for Maria -

We find shelter in this soup
on the cool edge of late summer,
ordering two bowls,
one per couple to share.

Its intensity not overpowering
like the supermoon tonight,
a spotlight gleaming down
at all the confident dancers.

Its creamy base, smooth texture
stir up easy laughter, genuine smiles.
Yellow hues with orange flecks,
herald of autumn days to come —

an early Thanksgiving, we scrape
our spoons along the bottom,
celebrating friendship and good fortune,
grateful for this small, luminous circle.

Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF