Three Collaborative Poems | Judy DeCroce and Antoni Ooto

Joanne

When I asked, how’re you doing,
“Good,” you smiled.

I could always make you laugh, right?

My artist-buddy who loved horses;
the face I never looked beyond.

Stay awhile, Jo
I haven’t learned to miss you yet.

Today,
I wish for a lift,
a little cheer,
such tiny wishes—selfish wishes.

In all those sweet or bitter days,
your hope was there.

Tonight, I’ll think about you.
  Tomorrow, I’ll think about horses.

                  In Memory of Joanne Benedict, Artist

Between, and Fog

Tied to a fender of boulders,
I sit, here within a cloud,
not even hoping to rise.

In this cove
where threads of waves on milk glass sea
tempt gulls bobbing beyond the dune grass.

I cast my thoughts through thinning fog
beached with no place safe to rest
like that red dinghy—PUFF

This Wasn’t the Plan

here, the body continues
but the mind closes the door for good

to a room we can no longer enter
where everyone wears a similar mask

like vintage furniture with faces,
that follow old ruts worn in place

we visit now perhaps only for ourselves

C, still a teacher without students
scratches in a plan book without days
forming a presentation to be given yesterday
to an audience, sleeping, slouching, staring

C. wonders where she is

and we who visit,
drive away guilty and forgotten

Judy DeCroce and Antoni Ooto

Poet/professional storyteller/educator Judy DeCroce, and poet/abstract expressionist artist Antoni Ooto are based in Upstate New York.

Married and sharing a love of poetry, they spend their mornings studying established poets, as well as, work on revising, critiquing, editing and through reading aloud, balance the meter of their pieces.

Judy DeCroce and Antoni Ooto have been published globally in print, online, and anthologies.

Judy Decroce In The Bezine

Antoni ooto in The Bezine