Mary Ellen Ugactz

Now -- For Juan

All is hushed

transient

Time becomes

the beat of your lips

speaking

There are no words

Just your smile

I understand now

       Pain is pleasure

       Pleasure is pain

Keep speaking –

       Don't lose sight of me

       I won't lose sight of you.

THE BUS-STOP (DOWNTOWN NY: POST 9/11)

In the city

      the web of activity begins

it was like any other day

      the sun -- bright

      hanging like a ripe apple

      in an orchard of brilliant clouds

you ran to get your bus

      when you could have walked

     waited for another

how could those left behind

     have foreseen it --

a shower of jet fuel

    from such a wondrous sky.

FOREWARD PLAY

I know you like me

when I dress up in punctuation

flaunt my vowels

strut my diction in a standard font

who needs a negligee Baby --

       I've got words.

CAUGHT

There's no fish that equals this catch

I swim submerged for hours on end

each minute suspended

       about to break surface

hooked

      baited

           broken.

Mary Ellen Ugactz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York of Irish and Russian-American parents. She graduated from Columbia University in 1995 with a degree in Creating Writing/Literature. She is married with two beautiful boys, David and Dillon. "I write because words are constantly swimming in my mind." Poets most influenced by: Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall.