Summer Poetry Pop-up: Jacqueline Jules

Waiting To Heal

Fractured bone

bleeds, then clots.

A callus forms

and tissue toughens—

as long as

circulation is good,

no infection intrudes,

and the limb

stays immobile

long enough.

Bone cells

possess the magic

to link broken parts,

become whole enough

to bear the weight

of living once again.

If only waiting

weeks and weeks

didn’t blister and itch

or entomb every thought

inside a plaster crypt.

                                        --Jacqueline Jules

"Waiting to Heal" appears in Itzhak Perlman's Broken String.

Jacqueline Jules is the author of three chapbooks, Field Trip to the Museum (Finishing Line Press), Stronger Than Cleopatra (ELJ Publications), and Itzhak Perlman’s Broken String (Winner, Helen Kay Chapbook Prize 2016). Her work has appeared in over 100 publications. Visit her online at www.jacquelinejules.com where you will see that she is also the author of 40 books for young readers including the Zapato Power series and Pluto is Peeved.

Summer Solstice Splendid Wake Poetry Pop-Up

Random Headlines

by Jacqueline Jules

In a zoo in Morocco,

a child leans, smiling,

against a fence, to pose

with the elephant

who inexplicably hurls

a rock at her head.

The next day,

a man in Philadelphia

removes a storm drain

and jumps. Sucked

ten feet into a sewer,

he miraculously survives.

Unlike the child in Morocco.

Reading headlines each morning

I can’t decide if the news

defies or declares

a random universe,

one without

predetermined years

allotted each life.

Something to consider

as I stand in a cemetery

talking to a stone

on your birthday,

recall the sound of your voice

in the rustle of a Weeping Cherry

hanging overhead. 

"Random Headlines" appears in Jacqueline's book Itzhak Perlman's Broken String, winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press. 

Jacqueline Jules is the author of three chapbooks, Field Trip to the Museum (Finishing Line Press), Stronger Than Cleopatra (ELJ Publications), and Itzhak Perlman’s Broken String (Winner, Helen Kay Chapbook Prize 2016). Her work has appeared in over 100 publications. Visit her online at www.jacquelinejules.com where you will see that she is also the author of 40 books for young readers including the Zapato Power series and Never Say a Mean Word Again.