Assessment: How to Review Anything. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and essays have appeared in a wide range of on-line and print publications.
PRECURSOR
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
for Betsy
Two little girls sit
on concrete porch steps
restless
under the stern gaze
of their elders, almost 10.
Beckoned into the game
scratched with chalk on the sidewalk
they are shown walls
and doors and windows,
told to take care.
After five minutes of tip-toeing,
arms flung wide for balance,
the littlest one sticks out her lower lip.
Glares at the big girls, says
This isn’t fun anymore.
She stomps right through the walls
into her own game, her own rules,
the way she plays
for the rest of her life.
First published in Manzanita Quarterly, 2001
TROUBLE COMING
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
The small girl crouched on the back steps
of her grandmother’s white framed house,
peppermint-striped skirt kited
over knees knobby and scratched.
She knew she was special
there on that old wraparound porch—
her daddy and grandma
always said so.
The cleaning lady laid it on the line:
When that girl child of yours
comes into her body,
you’re going to need a shotgun
to keep the boys away.
The father laughed and ruffled
the child’s bowl cut hair, forgot
the comment for a decade.
When the kitchen filled with the tramp
of boy-smelling shoes, dirty jokes,
cracked voices raised in challenge,
the father suddenly remembered.
As for the young girl,
she’s sticking to silence –
never show, don’t tell –
pasted over her red and white smile.
First published in Nanny Fanny, 2002
Contact Patricia
Published in Nanny Fanny, Winter 2001
Patricia has most recently been published in Tiger's Eye, Möbius, The Horsethief's Journal, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly and Niederngasse. She won the Reuben Rose
Tina says, "I am 54, single and live in Brooklyn, NY. I work in Manhattan as a full time office manager. My writing is a newly found passionate hobby. I get my ideas from personal experiences and the adventures of family and friends. I have never taken a writing class, but three years ago I started practicing meditation. I attribute my newfound passion of writing to that practice, meditation gave me a clear and open mind. No better friend than the soul of my pen."
