for Chole Kerney
by Daniel Barry
i remember a runny nose,
texting my roommates
i’d be leaving
and trading them
for a suitcase
with wheels.
i folded all my socks
and felt the loneliness,
the quiet,
the misery of feeling
i was the only one
in this lone room world.
dad tried to book a flight
but my northeast edge
of the country refused
because suffering has a way
of making you wise,
softening the brow,
and evolving the soul.
a one-on-one confrontation
with my mind,
the aerodynamics involved
with melting into
an inner oasis.
the room was silent
and my mind was
an abrasive hippopotamus
with whom to
dance a tango, macarena,
two-step wrestling
marathon. thinking
i’m losing and gaining
the upper hand,
swapping places
and learning not to
listen to the hippo
in my head.
dance and dance,
i swayed away,
danced solo—
hippos hate to be
ignored so he
ran as i sold
his real estate
for love thoughts
of my dad.
thursday, friday, saturday, sunday,
i came back monday.
a changed woman
and a changed man,
everyone who
knew me
after i revised
my resumé
with the experience
of four walls,
a dry, slanted cough.
my soul and hippo thoughts:
day by day
feeding the former
more than the latter.
First Dawn
by Marsha Solomon
Daniel Barry is currently an undergraduate student of chemical biology and behavioral neuroscience at Saint Joseph’s university in Philadelphia. He’s also an emerging poet. He writes and consumes poetry with the appetite of a minor black hole and has had poetry accepted by Calla Press and The Crimson and Grey.
“From Rhythm to Form” utilize jewel-like colors, the variation of opacity—from soft washes to thick strokes of impasto—and positive and negative spaces to create a dynamic image, born from nature, emotion and creative force. Solomon‘s work has been the subject of many solo exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Ignatian Literary Magazine 