~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Nicole Peats

If I Could Have Any Superpower

I’d choose psychic or telepath.

This has been my preference since childhood,

when I felt certain the only language

capable of producing world peace

would escape the limitation of verbal speech,

which I often felt impeded empathy.

Back when I was optimistic.

Back when I believed it was possible to overcome personal bias.

Back before I had the internet.

In this post 2020 world I still believe

psychic capabilities could have saved millions.

Assuming we could still be optimistic.

Assuming it’s possible to overcome personal biases.

Assuming we trust human experience

and the scientific method

more than we trust

the internet.

From One Poet to Another

          ~ a thank you note to Dominic Monaghan

In the echo chamber void

of isolation downtime and internet wormholes,

watching conspiracy theories

and misinformation news stories chase each other

like an endless ouroboros,

lost in that space between

heartbeats,

shattered by a sea of scattered pixels

your poetry is the lifeblood

I seek. This promise

of mutual humanity:

a whispered

defibrillation sparked by inspiration and imagery,

rhythm and vocabulary.

this snapshot

of a mental process shared with the world

in polaroid sincerity.

Whether it’s the “ghost in your heart,”

“A feather floating in a glass jar,”

or a crush “leaving the party

with an umbrella,

and a coat made of Treacle and Starlight,”

there’s kinship in the details,

beacons in the space between

syllables.

In taking my breath away

you remind me

to inhale.

Nicole Peats grew up in Southeast Missouri, before moving to a city with nicer weather (aka Chicago). As morbid as it sounds, she credits a world-wide pandemic, plus a few key inspirational figures, for motivating her to reconnect with her artist side, after a seven year hiatus. She also would be remiss if she did not mention the La Grange Writer’s Group, of which she’s a member, for their instrumental critique and inspiration over the past couple of years.