Yellow Mama E zine

My Child's New Friends

​

by Joan Leotta

No parks or swings

or other children live

nearby, so our child plays

alone in the graveyard

behind our house,

the parish manse.

 

All is well I think

as I watch her run

joyously around the

stones, in figure eights,

pluck dandelions,

weave them into crowns

then lays them on the stones.

 

All is well until 

one suppertime when she

tells us some jokes

her new friends shared.

"What are your new

friends' names?" I ask.

She blithely responds,

reciting name after name

from the rows of gravestones.

​

 

     Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her work has been published internationally, including in Yellow Mama, Mystery Tribune, and others, and has won some awards and been nominated for Pushcart and Best of Net. Her greatest satisfaction as a writer is knowing that someone has enjoyed her work. ON stage she performs folk tales of food, family, and strong women and offers a one-woman costumed show as Louisa May Alcott that has been garnering rave reviews. She can bring Louisa in person or on zoom to your group, focusing on writing, the Civil War, and sewing and Victorian Family Life.

 

      Joan Leotta
Author, Story Performer
“Encouraging words through Pen and Performance”

Folk, Fairy, and Personal Tales of friendship, kindness, food, family, and strong women.

Now also Presenting Author visits by Louisa May Alcott

As writer, Nominated for Pushcart, Best of Net, Best of Micro fiction, Western Peacemaker Award, Awardee in Presswomen, Robert Frost, Silver Arts, Dancing Poetry

"Feathers on Stone" poetry chapbook available from me and at

https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/feathers-on-stone-joan-leotta/

 

      Other Joan Leotta Books

Languid Lusciousness with Lemon, Finishing Line Press (Amazon)

Morning by Morning and Dancing Under the Moon, two free mini-chapbooks are at https://www.origamipoems.com/poets/257-joan-leotta 

For information on my four out of print novels, collection of short stories and four children's picture books, contact me at this email 

​

Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received. She is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama.