Nightingale & Sparrow

Author: meganrusso

  • Perhaps

    Perhaps

    Essie Dee

    A first encounter. Shy smiles, a nod hello. Side glances. Warmth inside, feeling things that shouldn’t be. But it will pass.

     

    But will it pass? 

     

    Distracted thoughts most inappropriate. A click of picture taken in discreet. Avoidance that does not last. Sit apart and glance too long. Has anybody noticed? Then seated side by side, legs bump and elbows brush. That warmth becomes a flame.

     

    Standing near, and then too close. A full body lean, inhaling the scent of one another. Gently one hand slides over the other, fingers weave. Flame burns, breath quickens. Heads tilt and eyes meet, a silent question lingers. Not a moment for witness, unspoken promise of later and parting ways.

     

    Later finds them on a forest stroll, fingers laced. Birds flit about in anticipation, noting an excitement that hangs in the air. Will it? Won’t it? Should it? Want it.

     

    A moment chosen. Gently, carefully, hands find their way. Breath becomes heavy as flushed cheeks graze one another. Spirited eyes close as lips meet and part.

     

    A groping moment before they separate, carnal hunger in their faces. One leads the other off the path into the shade of trees, dried leaves crunching beneath their feet. An old knotted oak is chosen, pressed upon. Clothing is unbuttoned, fumbled loose.

     

    Promises broken while making, making, making.

     

    Bitten lip, bitten shoulder, nails drag down back. Birds cease to sing, leaving the rustling leaves above to mingle with the sighing crescendo.

     

    And then the realization of the moment, no longer pure fantasy. Confusion. Uncertainty. Shy smiles and side glances. Will anyone find out? Is this where it ends? Is this the start of something?

     

    Perhaps.

    Essie Dee

  • Nothing More Beautiful

    Nothing More Beautiful

    Elizabeth Kemball

    I have never seen anything more beautiful
    than the imprint of your breath on winter’s air
    the proof of your life, your presence
    spilling out, like smoke or ink in water;

    there is nothing more beautiful
    than the fact you breathe
    and with each breath
    love me.

    Elizabeth Kemball

  • To a Distant Lover

    To a Distant Lover

    Jenny Robb

    Why hold my heart and love so far away?
    Brief sparks of joy explode and then are gone.
    These winter days of unremitting grey
    are bitter images of life where sun
    is but a memory. Oh, lover, return
    and light shall split the grey. The warmth of love
    will thaw my heart and I’ll no longer yearn
    for kisses slow, caresses sweet. Above
    the sky will break and shine with rainbow light,
    reflecting joy that brims and overflows,
    ‘till barren days and tears that drench the night
    are washed away and cleanse the winter snows.
    So lover take heed and hasten back to
    colour the grey and set my spirit free.

    Jenny Robb

  • Spinning Time

    Spinning Time

    Michael Maul

    You walk slowly. I do, too.
    But my heart still races
    at the thought of
    spinning time with you.

    Michael Maul

  • Wedding at Ward 35

    Wedding at Ward 35

    Daniel Hinds

    For the wedding of Wendy Holliday and Eric Hinds*

    For a symbol of love’s endurance
    Look to your wedding rings

    The continuous, unbroken token
    Of love’s lasting life.

    That love which banns allow.

    Whatever you hold to: complex gods,
    Or simple love, each other, or each day

    Hold to it today.

    When wedding bells ringing
    Intermingle with a sadder sound.

    I look to my brother,
    Writing a quick speech
    Gathering a slow wit.

    The best man deadpans about bedpans.

    I look to my father,
    Farther from sorrow than he should be.

    I look to a bride,
    Nearer to him now, dearer to us.

    Today the thing borrowed is time –
    Spent prudently, buys an eternity.

    The thing blue – scrubs and feelings
    Freshened by tears.

    And something new – a new last name
    And the old first thing: Love.

    *I read this poem aloud at the wedding of my father and Wendy Holliday on the 20th of July 2019 at Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, as part of my best man’s speech (a position which I shared with my twin brother). Wendy died of cancer on the 9th of August 2019 and this poem was read again at her funeral, this time by my father.

    Daniel Hinds

  • Jason Whitt

    Jason Whitt

    Poetry Contributor

    Jason Whitt is an emerging poet and author who is currently writing for his first collection of poetry and debut novel. Jason has been a lifelong musician and built a career as a private music teacher. In recent years, he has begun to pursue his love of writing in a more passionate, dedicated manner spending much of his free time writing poetry and contemplating the plot to his first novel. Jason’s love for music and writing become quite obvious by reading his work and observing the way the two intertwine. His desire for his readers is that they will experience the beauty found through words that bring to life the array of emotions felt in the journey.


    Works in Nightingale & Sparrow

    Inkwell

     

  • Cupid

    Cupid

    Wilda Morris

    With two repeated lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    by William Shakespeare

    Cupid is a knavish lad,
    mischievous as any child
    thus to make poor females mad.

    When he shoots a great dyad,
    wound and flame are reconciled.
    Cupid is a knavish lad,

    playful is he, more than bad—
    or so you think when you’re beguiled.
    Thus to make poor females mad,

    he winks his eye and plays the cad,
    lets his arrows fly off wild.
    Cupid is a knavish lad.

    When men think that love’s a fad,
    they play tricks on those who smiled
    thus to make poor females mad.

    Oft his arrows still go bad.
    Many heartaches he’s compiled.
    Cupid is a knavish lad
    thus to make poor females mad.

    Wilda Morris

  • Letter From the Editor – love

    Dear Reader, 

    Following our last issue, the Halloween-themed nevermore, it was only fitting that we enter 2020 with a testament to all things love, just in time for Valentine’s Day.  It’s hard not to feel the love surrounded by chocolate hearts, Hallmark cards, and candlelit dinners for two! And, if you’ll allow me to indulge in self-promotion for just a moment, my chapbook, Three Words, a bittersweet love story itself, recently came out with Bottlecap Press, so the topic was fresh in my mind while reading through these submissions. That being said, I’m so incredibly excited to share this issue of Nightingale & Sparrow with you!

    2020 so far has been a great year for us here at N&S, with new staff members, new books (and at least 20 titles to come through the new year!), and new endeavours. But it’s also seen its share of frustrations already, with sickness, life changes, and political strife taking precedence in our day to day lives. With that in mind, I owe a huge thank you to our team for working together to bring this issue into the world despite it all.  

    And, of course, we owe tremendous amounts of gratitude elsewhere:  to our submitters and contributors, our readers (hello!), our followers across social media, our customers who pick up copies of our books and magazine issues, and our supporters on Ko-Fi.   Every word read, post shared, and dollar spent or donated truly means the world. 

    Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this issue of Nightingale & Sparrow.  We asked submitters to share their “mushiest, gushiest, lovey-dovey-est work,” and they delivered all that and more.  Read through images of love in droplets of ink with pieces like “Unlocked” by December Lace and “Inkwell” by Jason Whitt and within the depths of a warm mug in Catherine Thoms’ “Coffee Date” and Anne White’s “Coffee Courtship.”  You’ll hear love songs in the mundane and discover sonnets in the defining moments of a lifetime, or of two lives becoming one. You might just find yourself falling in love along the way.  

    Happy Valentine’s Day and remember—we here at N&S hold a special place in our hearts for all of you who help make publications like this one possible!

    Juliette Sebock

    Editor-in-Chief, Nightingale and Sparrow

  • Love Poems That Are Not About Suffering Are Difficult

    Love Poems That Are Not About Suffering Are Difficult

    Lauren Boisvert

    I told you I was writing love poems
    and you said     oh no
    like you knew they’d be about you;
    I could’ve been writing
    about the impeccable love
    between cat and person
    but instead, yes, I wrote about you
    am currently writing about talking about writing
    about you.
    There’s some psychology about that somewhere
    I’m sure:
    Freud or Rilke or the great philosopher Siken.
    Writing about writing
    about someone you love
    is a shallow act
    like an old prospector panning for gold
    praying for that little nugget of pure inspiration
    an angel’s tear
    unearthed from water
    this poem is neither tear nor nugget
    but something unpolished and raw
    an unrefined wisdom on a shelf at the Goodwill
    dusted off and taken home
    with someone who collects neither nuggets nor tears
    but cyclical renderings
    of words and fat
    a richness like a snake eating its own tail
    and enjoying it.

    I hold your cheek to mine
    and I feel like I’m looking at the base of a globe
    the light-up one I had as a child
    suffused blue light and multicolored countries
    I traced them all in marker
    like I trace my fingernails along your back now
    staring into that light
    white Antarctica blazing in it’s frigid shell.

    Lauren Boisvert