Three Poems

by Nancy Byrne Iannucci

Late August

Chance came to me in vibrations,

vibrations that startled even the tiniest of insects

beneath the coral bells. 

I chant, kneeling,

hummingbird knowledge, hummingbird chance.

My lover said it came to say, “thank you,”

thank you for the coreopsis and ruby nectar.

Sitting in my new Adirondack chair,

My neighbor, on his rider-mower,

is still sneezing like spring.

A band of crickets help me transition,

a chorus, a different kind of vibration

that comes in cool breezes.

The butterflies help me, too,

taking fare from my coneflowers,

but the bee-

The bee can’t make up its mind,

so distrusting of humans, even after all this time –

I’ve been showing it over and over,

in ways of lavender and cosmos,

that I’m a friend. And still

it jumps from petal to stem before settling in.

I’m glaring at a wall of corn,

ready, and waiting for the tractor,

to knock it down, a Berlin Wall

standing between the regimes

of Summer and Fall.

And still my meadow holds on to happy faces,

 like children

on a Ferris wheel.

(Hummingbird Knowledge, Hummingbird chance taken from the poem “For Jane, with all the love I had, which was not enough” -Charles Bukowski)

*Originally published in Chewers and Masticadores.

I feel Sappho-    

wandering about.

you keep showing me.

you unloose

the love in your eyes.

the want seeps

from my mouth

like semen.

my heart shakes

like a Redbud leaf,

flame throwers in the wind.

I’m a forest fire

that was deliberately set.

*Originally published in Linked Verse.

Lies 

The last of the wildflowers

stand like knights

in a moat

on my woodstove,

cut by the sword

of a gentle flame

 in a green grove.

 When are they going

to harvest the corn?

The sun is so warm

he’s deceitful.

The horse sways its tail

at the remaining flies,

the lies autumn makes.

*Originally published in Compass Rose.

BIO: Nancy Byrne Iannucci is a poet from Long Island, New York who currently lives in Troy, NY with her two cats: Nash and Emily Dickinson.  San Pedro River Review, 34 Orchard, Defenestration, Hobo Camp Review, Bending Genres, The Mantle, Typehouse Literary Magazine, and Glass: a Poetry Journal are some of the places you will find her. She is the author of three chapbooks, Temptation of Wood (Nixes Mate Review, 2018), Goblin Fruit (Impspired, 2021), and Primitive Prayer (Plan B Press, fall 2022). Visit her at www.nancybyrneiannucci.com  Instagram: @nancybyrneiannucci