Three Poems by Jessica Weyer Bentley

 

 

The Watch

 

 

just lies there, 

stilled, 

as you were stilled, 

cold, 

foreign, 

its face splattered with red, 

caboose red, 

adhered to a now busted Bulova. 

I wonder, 

if I loosen the flecks will your memories fall, 

as you fell, 

filling my empty years with happy celebrations 

instead of caboose red, 

everywhere. 

 

 

An Irritable Heart

 

There is madness in the crackling of the elms, 

frozen limbs of memory. 

The raven is chilled to silence. 

The pines emanate beauty and demise. 

The sunrise begs to tower over the eastern hills. 

The black ore breathes in the melancholy 

The barren land muffles the beat of this irritable heart.  

I imagine that nature will comfort me, 

the barn owl will bow and weep. 

I was their friend in liquid moments, 

they were mine, 

as men revealed their violent nature 

 

 

I Want to Fill My Prescription Without Triggering PTSD

 
 
The pharmacist called, 
my prescription is in, 
no number of pills will numb the torment. 

I climb behind the wheel as the sun sets on the Ohio farmland,. 
driving down Columbus Street passing the tiny apartment on the second floor.  

The one where you held me last and we shared a glass of lemonade. 
I close my eyes, 

grasping at what is left in this aged brain. 
I turn the corner, 

sharp, 

passing your favourite diner, 

The Midway, 

the one in that faded polaroid, 
toasting to your last New Years Eve. 
Pharmacists perform miracles of poison, 

yet cannot repair this blackened elegy, 
45 years with angst’s neuropathy. 
I smile at the cashier, 
exchanging light pleasantries, 
the real explosion eminent as I exit their parking lot. 
I turn down State Route 309, 
right at mile marker 7, 

liquid napalm, 
where fate met your body with a two-ton pickup, 
gasoline and plasma. 
Time now dares to trip forward, 

I am puzzled how I still breathe, 

climbing back behind the wheel, 

I turn toward home, 

dreading my next refill. .

Jessica Weyer Bentley is a published author of two poetry collections. Her first collection of poetry, Crimson Sunshine, was published in May 2020 by AlyBlue Media. Her second book, Down Below Where the Canary Sings, was published in May 2023 by Sage Owl Publishing in Massachusetts. She is currently penning her third collection, The Angel’s Share, slated for publication by Sage Owl Publishing this, Summer. Jessica resides in Northwest Ohio.