The Ekphrastic Review
  • Ekphrastic
  • About
  • Workshops
  • Writers
  • Give
    • Merch
  • TERcets Podcast
  • Ekphrastic Writing Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Submit
  • Contact

Open All Night, by Jeanne Wagner

9/21/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Open All Night, by Kate Peper (USA) contemporary. Click on image to visit artist site.

Open All Night
  
Let’s stay out late, light’s a shrine,  
each lit storefront a refuge.
Let’s prowl the streets, 
echoes of our own after-curfew 
footsteps stalking us.
Neon is Main street’s candlelight--
photons streaming through
a slender glass tube 
like cocktails through a plastic straw.
Maybe we’ll find a tavern 
with a fake fireplace,
mirrors garish with longing.  
Everyone selling the good news 
of easy camaraderie. 
We can hear a woman’s laughter,
nervous little shrieks fluting its edges 
like the crimping on Mom’s apple pie.
Gene Kelly never danced on this street,
never sang to these lampposts, 
never sloshed on the shine 
of this sidewalk. 
This isn’t home and the heart doesn’t
ache for anyone here.
You can leave the sad stories behind,
unless they’re your own.
​

Jeanne Wagner  

Jeanne Wagner is the author of four chapbooks and three full-length collections: The Zen Piano-mover, winner of the NFSPS Poetry Prize, In the Body of Our lives, Sixteen Rivers Press and Everything Turns Into Something Else, published in 2020 as runner-up for the Grayson Books Prize. Her work has appeared in Alaska Review, Cincinnati Review, North American Review, Florida Review, and The Southern Review. 

 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    This site uses cookies to deliver your best navigation experience this time and next. Continuing here means you consent to cookies. Thank you.
    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture

    ​​Find a writer, artist, or poem, etc. by searching here:
    Current Prompt
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • Ekphrastic
  • About
  • Workshops
  • Writers
  • Give
    • Merch
  • TERcets Podcast
  • Ekphrastic Writing Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Submit
  • Contact