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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
Here is a lady poet who combines her poetry writing with not only family but also working nights as a Registered Nurse. Rissa lives with her husband and children in Texas.  Only writing, she says, since 2010, she has already self published collections of her poetry that are available on Amazon. On the internet you can read more of Rissa's poetry on Allpoetry.com

I think that sometimes you come across another soul in this wide, wide world, and you recognise the skill, talent, and determination of a fellow writer such that you can't keep it to yourself!


Acres Of Grief


The stone tablet bears
words she didn’t want to see
His life cut short, summarized:
name and two dates—
birth and death
Atop the sunken nest
where her loved one rests

She goes about and carries on
Because bills have to be paid
Meals cooked
Clothes laundered
Floors swept
Of the day’s dust....

All the chores, all the cares
Come knocking on her door
Weighing down
her steel but
weary heart.

She carries on
Her world spinning
Still, she smiles

And you could never tell
Unless you knew that
her feet are sunken
in a field growing acres
and acres of grief...

Waves still surging,
threatening to drown her
Days and years
after it passed
The revolving door of
maelstroms
ending here...

Beneath the polished stone
that bore his name.


© Rissa Cortez 2023