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Cynthia Good
What’s True
With focusing art from Featured Artist Gery Kempczynski.
We buried my mother’s ashes
We tossed her belongings
. into a dumpster
The boys moved away
A new owner bulldozed
. the ranch house
surrounded by trees
. The apartment kept flooding
We replaced the toilet
. twice
The AC broke
. I curled on the floor
sobbing a couple days a week
. My girlfriend said
a branch not a fist
. blacked her eye
I wake up shaking
. My dog waits for me
on a cushion
. her tail dangling
like a fairytale
. A pipe froze behind a wall
and the drip took
. two weeks to find
About the writer:
Cynthia Good is an award-winning poet, journalist, former TV news anchor, and author of the new chapbook, What We Do with Our Hands from Finishing Line Press. She has written seven books and launched two magazines. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Tupelo Quarterly, Pedestal, and Terminus Magazine.
Image: Demands of Despair by Gery Kempczynski (contemporary). Acrylic on canvas. 16 x 20 inches. By 2023. By permission. Gery Kempczynski is an O:JA&L Featured Artist for June 2023.
About the Featured Artist:
With paintings being displayed in homes, city community centers and hospitals across the United States, Gery Kempczynski, a returning artist to OJAL (Lagniappe, July 2, 2018) is a seasoned professional artist focusing on color, texture, nonfigurative landscapes, and abstract art. Exhibitions include Beverly Art Alliance venues, Arlington Heights Northwest Community Hospital, and The Village of Evergreen Park Center. “When I come to my canvas, I feel free to place brush on canvas and color is set to my mood. As I paint, the production begins to uncover which direction this work will take. Abstracted landscapes allow viewers to find much more in my work other than a simple mountain or a tree, but rather, allow them continually to find within my work special tokens and emblems to enjoy for a lifetime.”
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprint Buttonhook Press, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation supporting writers and artists worldwide.
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