Shontay Luna: Me, to the Exercise Instructor

Dude,

I can 

tell you 

love

to dance.

I like to 

dance, too.

But I’m 

new to your

class and to 

the steps

of your 

routine.

I’m not used 

to freeform 

but find myself

more often than 

not, improvising 

to the point of

marching in place.

While I patiently

wait for you to take

it down a notch,

emerge from being

in the zone, to a

sequence that I can 

actually

follow.

Shontay Luna is the author of four chapbooks; most recently ‘The Goddess Journal.’ Credits include Rigorous, Bombfire and Brittle Paper, among others. After majoring in Poetry at Columbia College Chicago, she remains there with her pens and notebooks. IG: @shontayluna

Keith Robert Stewart: Death of An Artist

Houses were easy to draw,

With a door and four squares.

Smoke from the chimney was

Always a curly telephone cable,

Curtains were spotted butterfly wings.

Each line had an absolute simplicity.

Each blot was confident in its

Placement.

Painting and drawing were easy.

Confidence oozed from my fingers,

Certain that I could represent

A house on my page.

Years later I had to

Pick up the brush again.

O Level Art was a chore.

In drawing, the rubber was used

More often than the pencil.

I struggled to represent the detail,

Doubting my strokes and dashes.

Gone was the innocent eye,

The naïve gullibility of a child.

The beautiful simplicity was lost.

Keith Robert Stewart has been writing poems since childhood (1970s?!) and has recently plucked up the courage to read publicly and submit for publication.