For Neil
You the only one
with Mom blue eyes
your magnetic draw
same grace same hermit side
coated with protective
humor half bold and full-on
kind and beautiful
as a peacock train
Sheila E. Murphy. Work has appeared in Poetry, Hanging Loose, Fortnightly Review, and numerous other journals. Forthcoming: Escritoire (Lavender Ink), October Sequence 52-122 (Chax Press), and an untitled collection from Unlikely Books. Most recent book: Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023). Received the Gertrude Stein Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Was awarded the Hay(na)ku Book Award from Meritage Press (2018). Resides in Phoenix. Her Wikipedia page can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy
Let's call it vocals for plurality
past bi-focals viewing dimlit pencil sketches
that stay in store before my quizzical
imploring cry of "More!" while I stand
at intention with pale gift of attention
five and a half furlongs toward her body
her unharmed body of work with
welt-weary spurts of infracted innocence
seeping through for we are not alike
I like that bold kindness may the rest
of her be given respite she has earned
I bow to endow her shimmering
aloneness nested in a wiser
Christ