.
Ensnared
.
She returned to the place where she first
experienced longing and surrender.
.
Where past loves had been tangible as mercury,
elusive as ghosts.
.
By day, butterflies clung to spikes of blue veronica,
crimson azaleas filled in bright green bushes.
.
At night, dazed and glowing with a moon tan,
she caught the sole pulsing star,
.
then tossed her shillelagh, vowed to engineer life’s voles
on her own terms.
.
Medea’s Cameo
.
I wonder if Medea wore a coral cameo
when she embarked on the journey
with Jason seeking passion and gold.
.
A brooch revealing Athena on a raised relief,
an ancient campaign button of hope,
an amulet for an enchantress who divined.
.
Under a watery sky, did she dance
to wind songs on the hunt for treasure?
Did she regret her treatment of the King?
.
Love is love—it nurtures and heals.
But pride can trample hearts.
And when revenge turns gruesome,
.
a magical charm can’t stop a blazing rage
that ignited more than her soul.
.
Amy Barone’s latest poetry collection, We Became Summer, from New York Quarterly Books, was released in early 2018. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing.) Her poetry has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Philadelphia Poets, Sensitive Skin, and Standpoint (UK), among other publications. She spent five years as Italian correspondent in Milan for Women’s Wear Daily and Advertising Age. She belongs to PEN America Center and the brevitas online poetry community that celebrates the short poem. A native of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Barone lives in New York City.
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North of Oxford 