Two Poems by Penny Blackburn A Lady by Stela Brix, 2020 One Day at a Time Each day brings a new tide. Imperceptibly, our grief is washed away; broken up – broken down into its smallest parts. The beach looks clean; wet sand smoothed, packed flat ready to be walked on. We leave careful footprints along the ridges. A stray piece will catch us, scratch us unaware – the razor edge of a shell or Lego from a cargo-fall twenty years ago, that will not stop washing ashore. Viewfinder I do not dream the sea anymore. Its shoreline exhalations do not call into my dormant mind to bring me word of gulls and shoals of fish. I track the waveform paths through a Tower scope that restricts me to a given axis of rotation and permitted range of view. My surveillance of the watercalm is wasted; shredded nets and broken lobster pots trail uselessly through my sleep. About the Author: Penny Blackburn lives in the North East of England and writes poetry and short fiction. Her publications include pieces online in Bangor Literary Journal, Atrium, Black Bough and Ink, Sweat & Tears and in print with Paper Swans Press, Reader’s Digest, Poetry Society News, Broken Spine and Maytree Press. She is on Twitter and Facebook as @penbee8 Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Published by fragmentedvoices A small, independent press based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, and Prague, the Czech Republic View all posts by fragmentedvoices