By Flapper Press Poetry Café:
The Flapper Press Poetry Café is happy to announce a new series called TODAY'S POEM, highlighting one poem per article—that's right, just one—from poets from around the world.
Read our SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR TODAY'S POEM and send us your work for consideration to be published in 2025! Of course, you are always welcome to submit more of your work through our regular Submission process as well. Just hit the link at the bottom of the article to read our regular guidelines. We'd love to see your poetry!
Today we feature the work of Elizabeth Cohen and her poem "The Museum of Faraway Friends."
Elizabeth Cohen's work has been featured in Blue Mesa, San Antonio Review, Coachella Review, Connecticut River Review, Patterson Review, Ellipses, Black Renaissance Noir, River Styx, Yale Review, Cathexis, and other literary magazines and anthologies. She is the author of the poetry collections Bird Light, The Patron Saint of Cauliflower, Wonder Electric, The Economist's Daughter , and most recently Mermaids of Albuquerque. She is also the author of a memoir The Family on Beartown Road and a book of short stories, The Hypothetical Girl. She has an MFA from Columbia University and lives in Albuquerque with her dog, Layla.
From Elizabeth:
"The Museum of Faraway Friends" is a poem I wrote for a friend I miss who wrote a play now in a theater that I cannot see. When I found this out, it led me to realize that I have missed out on so much of her life, and she mine. Geography has interrupted us, the Rocky Mountains, the Mississippi River, and so much more. That led me to imagine a museum that would feature all the things I wish I could share with her, hence this poem.
The Museum of Faraway Friends
— for JLB
I am waiting for you here in the museum of faraway friends.
Past the exhibit of the first graders in frilly dresses
eating popsicles, down the hall. Keep left.
Don't get confused by the exhibit of cloud gazing friends,
thrifting friends, swimming pool and gym friends,
or sidetracked by the cafe, so distracting,
with all those foods we used to eat.
Just keep going, past the exquisite cocktail
drinking fountain, on the right. See that soft glowing light?
THAT IS IT, THAT IS US, in our gallery of hearts.
There we are in all our beautiful places.
See the way the light falls on our wedding dresses?
See the way we could make atoms rearrange?
See those tickets to the Lion King,
there on that silver pedestal?
Don't miss the alcove of kitty photographs.
And that, there, that bright light,
coming from the amphitheater,
that is the hall of hilarious anecdotes
related during holidays.
Go ahead. Listen and crack up as I do.
There are are postcards in the gift shop.
Sign the guest book. Tell me what you think.
Flapper Press is always open to new content that provides a unique voice or perspective. We are currently accepting Submissions for every category on Flapper Press.
If you have questions or would like to submit your work, please carefully review our Submission Guidelines and contact us at: info@flapperpress.com
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