Betsy Mars is a prize-winning poet, publisher, photographer, cat wrangler, and an editor at Gyroscope Review. Her poetry publications include ONE ART, Anti-Heroin Chic, and The NewVerse News. Her photos have been featured in RATTLE’s Ekphrastic Challenge, Redheaded Stepchild, and Spank the Carp, among others. Her chapbook, In the Muddle of the Night, was co-authored with Alan Walowitz.

Flashback

we caught fireflies 
in a jar,
beheaded them one by one,
stole their glow,
wanting all splendor
for ourselves 

***

Flight path

Who painted these brushstroke clouds,
pushed the leaves skittering
along the walkway, made the air loud
with ravens on the flyway?
Who flushed the whoosh from the damp
branches above, lit the sky’s lamp 
warming my back? Who is flying home today,
sirens wailing a final dirge nearby?

***

Bearing water

To wash dust from jagged leaves
I turn the hose on the hibiscus. 
Shriveled flowers fall to dirt,
water drips into soil, roots
reach for a sip, when suddenly
a moth, its rusty wings heavy
with moisture, fanning the same water 
into steam, flutters to the earth,
damned while new buds open.
Some feel my intentions as mercy, 
others nearly drown.

***

No ideas

“No ideas but in things”
– William Carlos Williams

A shattered cologne bottle.
Your work shirts repurposed as teddy bears.
A discarded flask with a worn engraving.
A box of letters on thin blue paper.
The shirt I wore the last time I saw you.
The whiskey you drank,
still hard to swallow.

***

Publishing credits

“Flashback” exclusive first publication by East Ridge Review
“Flight path” first published by Minyah Magazine
“Bearing water” first published and nominated for Best of the Net (2022) by ONE ART
“No Ideas” first published by Fox Poetry Box