Alissa Sammarco

Alissa Sammarco lives, writes and practices law in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Her poetry has appeared in print and online journals including Sheila-Na-Gig online, Black Moon Magazine, Change Seven, Quiet Diamonds, Main Street Rag, Evening Street Review and Hags on Fire.  Her debut chapbook, Beyond the Dawn, will be released September of 2023.  Three more chapbooks are coming out after that:  I See Them Now (December 2024), Moon Landing Day (June 2024), and Cupcake Day (December 2024).  You can pre-order and find more poetry at www.AlissaSammarco.com.

This is becoming a habit

You going to bed,
leaving me to linger
in front of the tv,
ice clinking as it rolls
in amber bourbon.
If I dare to get up,
if I dare ask you a question,
you answer like seashells
in the breeze
hung from driftwood
I found on the beach.
The steady rustling
of waves turning them,
cutting perfect holes
in the spires
of moonshells and oysters,
tritons and cowries.
Their voices answer nothing
like the wind chimes I made
from driftwood and fishing line
now hung at the bedroom door.