Halfway House
(Angelic Mansion)
The young lady
with the ornery tattoo
brings me bread,
and tells me,
My husband
is in prison.
Then she asks,
I don’t even know
why you’re here?
I look at her serious
toughened face
before I shrug
my shoulders
and say,
Sometimes I
don’t either.
- - - -
John Sierpinski is a master storyteller. I think about Goldilocks and the Three Bears when I consider how he uses color and images; landscapes and incidents – not too much or too little, but just right. Just enough. If he’s ever had an impulse to show off his mastery of language (which I seriously doubt), he’s had the sound artistic judgment and humility to restrain it. He intends to connect and to banish loneliness through doing so and succeeds. - Sue Blaustein, poet
John Sierpinski is also the author of two previous books of poetry published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library available on Amazon: Sucker Hole (2018), and Vacancy/No Vacancy (2022).
