Postcard to Joy from Every Next November

by Suzanne Allen


It’s been a while since I spent any real time with you, Joy, so what’s new? If this were a living room instead of a postcard, there’d be an elephant in it, but at least it’d be pink. Grateful, the dog and I are dancing, come what may, relieved to remember there’s no true in emotions, Joy, at least not once we name them and put them in columns, good or bad, naughty or nice... Did you know, Joy, that they say Saint Nick was neither jolly nor fat? They also say we need each other, and I guess that much is true. After all, even black and white are best with a little something else, red and blue make purples, and me and you, Joy? Not calm exactly, and not necessarily happy either, but I’m dancing anyway, Joy, because I love your bounce and shine; plus, it’s Kate Rogers’ birthday today, and some other things, too.

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"Postcard to Joy" is part of Suzanne Allen's 2021 book, We Wash Our Hands.

Suzanne Allen is a writing teacher and artist born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles. Her poems appear widely online and in print, and she has two chapbooks verisimilitude (corrupt press) and Little Threats (Picture Show Press.) She also blogs intermittently at suzanneallenpoet.wordpress. In 2021, she published a full-length collection of mostly pandemic poems, We Wash Our Hands, and her long-awaited collection of Paris poems Awkward, will be released this winter.