Tipton Poetry Journal – Winter 2022 in the language of an earth we will age out of and in the bliss of unknowing, fall out and in again to the beauteous oblivion, this time i give you a rose. adorn your cheek, if you like with this or some other symbol to take with you along the way i will bless you beyond whichever grave of water, this or that river, for you, as in death, i will reconsider the word "love". Elena Botts has lived many places in the northeast and abroad, currently in New York state. Her poems have been published in over a hundred literary magazines, and she is the winner of four poetry contests and has had many books published. Her visual artwork has won numerous awards and has been exhibited in various galleries. Elena has also collaborated on, released and installed sound and moving image artwork, as well as multimedia and conceptual art, and formed a multimedia collective for this purpose, while pursuing graduate school, human rights, and arts projects.
A-Fib and the Fly Joe Benevento “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” - Emily Dickinson
Two-fifty AM and my first arrhythmia in nine months. I’ve had this condition since before I was fifty, but back then the doctors said, after my cardiac catheterization showed how wide my arteries were, I had little to worry about, particularly since I always settled back to sinus rhythm. Now, though, experts inside my treacherous television exclaim even five minutes of atrial fibrillation greatly increases the chance for a stroke, so instead of sleeping through this bout, I stay awake waiting for the numbness, the tingling towards the potential panicked call to the ER.
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