losing our grip on purpose

By Janet Heller

I dream that I’m the photographer at your divorce.
Standing with your new lover, you pose,
a spidery smile on your face.

Now I capture your ex-husband in my lens:
his grey eyes plead:
he wants me to intervene.

After you ran away, I urged you to return.
We met together. But you refused,
and your seducer called the police.

As I mourn for estranged friends,
memories cling to my skin and clothes
like tobacco smoke.

Janet Heller is the past president of the Michigan College English Association and the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. She has a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. She has published four poetry books: Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012), and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011); a scholarly book, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990); a middle-grade fiction chapter book for children, The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016); and a fiction picture book for children about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 7th edition 2022), that has won four national awards, including a Children’s Choices award. Her website is https://www.janetruthheller.com