Submit your poetry and/or art for this site by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com before 11:59pm PST on Saturday, February 19th, 2022.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Beverly Higginson

Photo by Charles Ardinger


"Will this be the day that I die?"


I drive up the highway alone, north to the mountains

a familiar road, nothing to fear

until there is.   Billows of white,

a wall of white that closes behind me

I drive through fog like I've never seen before

so dense & thick I can't see beyond my hood


It had not crept in on little cat feet

it was a lion that did not roar, a snake without a rattle

in an instant, visibility disappears; I cannot see lines on the road

my eyes play tricks; I can't see the road

cliff drop-offs border the right

my knuckles turn white gripping the wheel

mountains & trees lost - signposts gone - off ramps shrouded by ghosts


creeping along forever I drive as if on a tightrope

suddenly in the distance I see taillights--or is it a mirage?

I trail this beacon, praying   Do not get too far ahead of me

But fog is unforgiving  - the beacon vanishes as if it was never there

That's when I feel it....this is how I'm going to die


The road narrows - gravel rock crunches under tires

too close to the edge - but I can't see the edge

too late I glimpse the outline of a signpost

but I can't get over


dread replaces the pounding in my heart

terror takes hold, fuels horrific images

        My car plunging over the embankment

        The body of a woman found

Regrets fill my head for all the things not done


No.       This can't be the day that I die

I've not yet reached my destination

I loosen my grip and get a grip on surviving





Chorus for Sisyphus  (GT)


Knowledge of Greek mythology

curses, death & what not

Required the aid of a Wiki* response

to flesh out your earnest plot


Aware & forlorn your meaning came clear

like pulling teeth - an old refrain

Repeatedly the rock increases in weight

you must pull those teeth once again


Spectrum breathes by the skin of its teeth

Supporters exist by a thread

Your plight relentless - ledgers & debits

A shorter list cuts to the edge


What to do? What to do? To level the rock

your reminder in print is a start

Satin paper suggests optimism prevails

your efforts resonate to the heart


Inspired by a poet -- I'm not one, I know it

yet desire hews cracks in this confession

For struggle I do to place words in a queue

to express the measure of my passion


Pulling back from that struggle

self-released from a poet's bubble

Support for your effort remains


Enclosed you will find

my renewal in kind

Hail Sisyphus & sustainers

who have stayed


*Wikipedia

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