Bobbie Lovell

CONTACT:
Website: bobbieleelovell.com

BIO:
Bobbie Lee Lovell’s poetry honors include Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations, and she placed in two categories of the 2016 WFOP Triad Prize. She assists with the Poetry Unlocked reading series in Appleton and is the author of Proposition at the Walk-In Infinity Chamber (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Bobbie has a career in graphic design and print production and works in a corporate marketing department near Green Bay.

PUBLICATIONS:
Proposition at the Walk-In Infinity Chamber, available from Finishing Line Press and elsewhere

Poetry

What is It About the Cliff

Each time I flee to the crumbling precipice,
leap the narrow chasm and wax
triumphant atop the limestone tower, each time
I plop my butt on the chilly rim and dangle my legs
above the trees, admire the sight of feet released
from the ground — each time, a choice presents itself,
however subconscious, however primal:
the urge to slide off the edge without fanfare,
or to run boldly as Icarus into the air, suspended
for a nanosecond before gravity says Never.
Each time, I leap back and re-shoulder the yoke
of worldly cares, its buckets heavy with bricks of loss
and duty. It’s said that if we attempted
to barter our troubles, we’d take back our own,
the ones about which we know something.
Each time I return from the cliff is a holy Yes
to living, to resilience.

From Proposition at the Walk-In Infinity Chamber

Mailboxes in February

Along the main drag,
they’ve been jostled by the plow
and buried to their necks,
these stoic stand-ins
for each taxpayer,
each targeted prospect,
their heads largely empty,
their faces all jaw
ready to receive
without prejudice:
the probable power bill,
the unlikely Valentine.
One small scarlet flag
semaphores hope
for whatever scant matters
still believe in paper
if not pen. Later,
their humans are lured
from cozy abode to glacial road.
Everyone of a certain age
is haunted by someone
who once promised to write.

First published in the Peninsula Pulse, Hal Prize for Poetry honorable mention