July 2021
Jean Biegun
jbiegun@att.net
jbiegun@att.net
Bio Note: Twenty years ago, I took a writing class at a city college in Chicago as a way to counter job stress as a special ed teacher at an overcrowded school in a high-poverty neighborhood. The plan worked. In the journey from there to retirement in rural Wisconsin and now in a peaceful university town in California, I discovered new themes and lines wanting to be written down. They continue to evolve from my first poem published in 2004 in After Hours: A Journal of Chicago Literature and Art to four pieces soon to be in The Pangolin Review and Buddhist Poetry Review.
4th of July in Two Rivers
Fog’s coming in over Janice and Ron’s house—
threat or promise depending where you stand
on Independence Day celebrations. I personally
vote for fog, that quiet step toward freedom.
Fireworks won’t be visible at dusk if it keeps up,
this mist spreading from East River.
The two cedar waxwings are back
at the shrub with small berries. Last week
we didn’t know those red tufts held fruit,
this being our first summer here.
My own revolutions begin in fog, whisper
and press lighted beacons to my chest,
leave me knowing where to go and how.
If it clears, the sky will explode at the neighbors’.
Ron bought a big supply. Janice clucks he is
such a boy, but I hear her soft married fondness.
Missing Eden
You hear talk of love and you want it
when you don’t have enough
Why was Frodo given the ring
Why him when Gollum craved it so badly
Is love like that
real love
Is it given to you and then you must take it
to the right place with no regard for yourself
Was Gollum ugly in every portrayal
I didn’t read any of the series
What did Tolkien know about love
Was his own a fact in history
Maybe I should read The Hobbit
or at least watch the movie
Gave the illustrated book to my kids long ago
Don’t know if they ever read it
©2021 Jean Biegun
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