Shaun R. Pankoski
Shaun R. Pankoski (she/her) is a poet most recently from Volcano, Hawaii. A retired county worker and two-time breast cancer survivor, she has lived on both coasts as well as the Midwest as an artist’s model, modern dancer, massage therapist, and honorably discharged Air Force veteran. Her poems have appeared in Bitter Oleander, The Ekphrastic Review, ONE ART, Gargoyle, Verse Virtual, and Poetry Breakfast.
I’m Picturing Paris
At least the one I imagine from movies, magazines
and a photograph you sent me once,
of you, sitting outside in the bright, chilly sunshine
at a white-clothed cafe table with a journal
and a really nice fountain pen,
leaving lipstick on the rim of your cup.
Somebody rides by on a bicycle
with a beret and baguettes,
bringing themselves and their bread to a lover
who has cheese and wine and maybe
an overripe pear, leaning in their underwear
over the tiny wrought iron balcony.
Everyone is smoking, no one is really happy
and there is a little dog sniffing something
in the alley and a cat, licking its paws
at the back door of a fish monger’s shop.
I’ll be in that picture one day,
my journal open, the pages blank.
