A Selection of Poems

Rich, dark and moist

​

I am a cook who bakes good bread

dark, flavorful and fragrant

I know how to knead the sweet mix

between us

rising and falling

to our heat and pressure

so tender

I knead it slowly

massaging knots from sinew

into smooth flesh

i watch it rising

as you come and

go from me, you are

always more patient

with this slow expansion

of us

i lift the cloth

check the progress, smell the pungence

of the yeast we make together

I press my fingers

into risen dough

and leave my mark

​

Sharon Mooney, “Rich Dark Moist”, From Secrets & Myrrors, a poetry anthology, ed.etal, Mortimer Roxbrough, London, England, Jume, 2020

Swimming the tide

The bahia had a personality today

I swam in the humid afternoon

Alone just bobbing up and down, lazy

The sea on the other hand

Was what workshop leaders call assertive

The waves of the afternoon’s incoming tide

Laid full up against my upright body

Pushing me softly and swiftly

Along the edge of my dock

Usually I can dreamily stroke through water

And keep face to face with the ladder

But today he was in the mood to claim me

Not just to move me out of the way

Dowsing like the wakes of passing boats

But like someone bigger who

Knows his power and uses it

To take me with him or

Makes me fight to get back my berth

Not a wiggler or swimmer beneath his surface

Clear for at least twelve feet down

The bahia was alive with being

Flowing, rolling, pushing forward into nowhere

Alive with lustiness to overpower me

Like a trusted lover’s insistent seducing

I turned my face down to his wet countenance

And laughed into his potent swell

Moving me out of my safe spot

​

Sharon Lopez Mooney, ‘Swimming the Tide’, in Songs to the Sun, a poetry anthology, ed. Kevin Watt, 2019, San Bernardino, CA, pp. 142-43

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This poetry is copyrighted and stored in author base. All material subject to Copyright Infringement laws: Section 512(c)(3) of the U.S.   Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. S512(c)(3),

Sharon Lopez Mooney