Friday, September 4, 2026: Beverly M. Collins' "Arrows Waiting"

Arrows Waiting

While I waited for the Ferris wheel recently,

I trailed the long line behind a couple that

were completely silent in one another’s

Company.

They spoke to (and only looked at)

their two children. Remained muted as

human land-mass on lookout for a subject

to float the waters between them like

lost sailboats between rocky cliffs.

Whenever I see a union in this condition,

I wonder if tomb-like quiet, with eyes in

different directions, is the avenue some couples

move to after too many rounds of emotional

hand grenades have been tossed?

I first noticed this type of couple

as a small child. I would quietly ponder.

Are each of them silent forts with

words tucked like arrows waiting?

Is this the white-flag-way, dogs give in to

the leash kind of living, that is, “as-happy-

as-its-going to-get” final surrender?

Or did I simply observe them in a “separate-

contemplation-while-together” moment

I hope so.

© Beverly M. Collins

Bio: Beverly M. Collins, author of the books, Quiet Observations and Mud in Magic. Her poems and short stories appear in publications based in USA, England, Ireland, Australia, India, Berlin, Mauritius, Lebanon, and Canada.

A 2019 Winner of the Naji Naaman Literary Prize in Creativity (Lebanon), four times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, once Best on the Net, prize winner for California State Poetry Society; 2 nd placed winner; June 2021 Wilda Morris Poetry Challenge (Chicago) and guest editor of California Quarterly.

Her photography can be found on: The cover of Peeking Cat 40 (England), California Quarterly,

and more.

www.https://beverlym-collins.pixels.com

National Women's Month: A Five Part Collaboration between AJ Meier Welch and Marie C Lecrivain

Sad Monday People from the series “Drawings of a Mad Saleswoman”, © 2017 AJ Meier Welch (7 x 10 ink on bristol paper).

After AJ Meier Welch’s “Sad Monday People”

One day, I may write you a letter.

And maybe, you’ll do the same,

mailed from the other side of nowhere,

passed through endless machines

and many hands, until one day,

we both arrive to our homes,

sore and bone tired with nothing

to look forward to except piles

of dirty laundry and dishes, dust balls

and a tall monolith of overdue bills,

seated like a judge on the kitchen table.

One day, I’ll find your letter to me,

and hopefully, you’ll find my epistle to you

at the bottom of that stack. We’ll carefully

pick up the other’s missive, and ponder

the grimy edges, the stamp overlaid by

a bulky bureaucratic seal, and a heel mark

on the lower left hand corner from where

the mail carrier trampled it in the rain.

We’ll hold each other’s gift in our hands,

breath caught in our throats,

and smile quietly at the miracle

of one woman reaching out to another,

as we weave ourselves into

the tapestry of quiet endless voices

who sing of sisterhood in the dark.

© 2017 marie c lecrivain

     AJ Meier Welch is a writer with a MA in Literature and Literary Theory from NYU, a photographer, and self-taught artist. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her family. For information/or purchase, you can find her work on FB, and Instagram at drawing_daisies_and_dogs. 
     AJMW: "As a writer, I used painting to escape from writing. By arranging sequences of colors in varying sized, complex patterns, I found an easability of expression that I had yet to acheive through the written word. Later, abandoning patterns, I moved to a free expression of color through instinctual relationships. What I explore in my work are these relationships. Through painting, I connect at a root level with the purest stimulant for emotions and feeling: color. I believe very strongly that colors and color combinations are deeply embedded in the human psyche as part of our emotional response mechanism. My study of color blended with my natural inclination to shapes and lines - I wondered how I could create depth when I'm at ease. My latest series has been going for almost two years and is titled "Drawings of a Mad Saleswoman." My photography allows me to create emotion without words. I love being behind the lens. "