Shooting Pool & Things Fall by Rina Terry

Shooting Pool

When those duck-tailed Harley greasers
rumbled up to the pool hall
I scratched the eight ball
and tossed my stick aside

The Righteous Brothers came on
the juke box but I had no intention
of Losin’ That Lovin’ Feelin’

Leather jacket and cleats on his boots
I kept my back turned
when I strolled outside

but the heat off his engine
made my cheeks as red 
as the cherry sparkle
in a Communion cup.

 Things Fall

 fountain drips
into a pond full of mud
animals chitter and squeak
their thirsting laments
stars sizzle their rage fall

Do I have to tell you 
to stop crying in your sleep
you watched me trip and fall
I need to put you down
and will try to do it gently
maybe remember where I left you

I can’t promise to return
things are much too complicated You
shudder but it’s just a skillet
heating on the stove the neighbor
pulls his hose across the lawn
a car door closes so what

do you want out of 
an empty bucket
of dreams and failures hold out

your hands trace the lines across
your knuckles make a tight fist
punch the hot air aside as you walk

a staircase disappears behind you it was
never about this world
it may all explode tomorrow

Artist’s Statement

"No matter the challenge, keep writing."  I came across that phrase on a Shakespeare-in-a-mask sticker during the pandemic .  That's actually been my mantra most of my life.  Writing is something that grounds me.  As Emily Dickinson would have it, I try to tell all the truth but tell it slant--  Dickinson's work, as well as that of Robert Creeley, continue to inspire me.  I plan to keep writing.

Rina Terry has both an academic and a clergy background and spent years as Supervisor of Religious Services in a men’s state prison. Her first book, Cardboard Piano, is themed on her years in prison culture. She has published book reviews, short fiction, poems and essays in Christian Century, Press 1, qarttsiluni, Palette Poetry, McQueen’s quinterly, The Pinecone Review and Drexel Online Journal. In addition, with Dr. David Lester, she has published academic articles related to poets and suicide. She has completed a two-month residency at Vermont Studio Center and looks forward to a month-long fellowship at Hawthornden Castle Writers Program in Scotland. Terry, a Southern New Jersey native, currently lives in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.