A new poem has been published in the summer 2025 edition of Thimble Literary Magazine.

I wrote the first draft of this poem in a writing workshop at Battery Park City library facilitated by Jon Curley - a wonderful and supportive group I hope to join again in the coming year.

MAPS WERE NOT NEEDED 

BY MICHAEL COONEY

Maps were not needed to discover where we were.
The man who was speaking said he was a poet.

The very old woman mistrusted wind chimes.
When she spoke of dragons and angels, we applauded.

The laboratory test displayed numbers and letters I could not
         understand.
I drank large quantities of water and read my own notes.

In the darkness two faces appeared to be one.
In my arms you said that nothing could happen.

At other times you were simply present.
You had never gone away.

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Michael Cooney

Michael Cooney has published poetry in Badlands, Amethyst, Second Chance Lit, Bitter Oleander, Big Windows Review and other journals. His short stories have appeared in Sundial Magazine, Bandit Fiction and Cerasus and two of his novellas were published recently by Running Wild Press and ELJ Editions. He taught in public high schools and community colleges of New York City for forty years and more recently facilitated a writing workshop with the New York Writers Coalition.

Poems published in April and May, 2024

 

The Very Next Season

The woman asked me if I could move out of her way.
A variety of people came into the subway car.

Some were overly friendly. Others were insane.
I looked around for someone that I knew.

It was then I discovered that some of my friends had grown very old.
I quickly changed trains at DeKalb and rode all the way to Coney Island.

I walked past the frozen Ferris wheel out onto the beach.
The winter rains reminded me that the very next season was Spring.

 

Eunoia Review

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You removed, Barbara

Posted on May 5, 2024 

the dark jacket
of your possibility

and stepped so precisely
through the tangled clothes on the bedroom floor

that I arrived alone
in the places that you treasured

Two Folding Chairs

Posted on May 5, 2024 

I want to set up two folding chairs in this place

and drink vodka and tonic with you until it gets so dark

that I can’t find my way home past the gravestones of all
the other lovers who, side by side, are buried here