Poetry

Shehan Peruma photo

By

Lynne Zotalis

Hey, What Doesn’t Kill You…

There’s always something to be sad about

if that’s what we choose

[to be]

A child starving or abused

the lonely soul in the old folks home

children so far away  – grandchildren farther

with no time to care, to share a note, a call

the soldier’s lost limbs or mind

or shipped home in a box

the abused, too poor to matter

too poor to escape

a single mom selling her body

to pay rent, feed kids

suicide inveigling your dearest friend

after she promised she’d stay

you beg, in vain, as the light in love’s eye

is doused (dying in your arms)

the son that gets cancer then divorced

A thick scar running the length of a heart—

it survived and now doubtless is the toughest part

and strongest element of the wizened soul

there’s always something to be sad about

or we may choose

[not to be]

It’s None Of Your Fucking Business What’s In My Wallet

I have no patience with Wall Street,

intimidating investment brokers shaming me

for my short-sighted conservatism—

my money shouldn’t be a chip

to be manipulated or influenced

by China’s woes

or Greece’s irresponsibility.

Who’s responsible here?!

Only me.

I know exactly where every

dime of my meager savings is.

In a bank earning at best a whopping 1%.

Stagnant stagnation. Losing

due to inflation, the financial advisor’s habitual harangue.

My confidence remains firm, resolved

to steer clear of that speculative black hole of evaporative investing,

the game

persisting so long as

everyone, well, at least the key players,

keeps tossing around billions, even trillions

in monopoly money.

Lynne Zotalis

As a freelance contributor and member in the Iowa Poetry Association, Lynne’s poetry has been published in Lyrical Iowa for ten years running. Since 2008, she’s participated in the Peace and Social Justice Writers Group at the Loft in Minneapolis, MN, where two of her pieces were included in the group’s chapbook entitled, Peace Begins. Lynne is a contributor to Turning Points: Discovering Meaning and Passion in Turbulent Times, Poetic Bond VII , and was one of six winners of the RH Cunningham short story contest published in the book Life Dances. All available on Amazon.