Jocasta

by V. P. Loggins

You see her float like grief
from room to room, wearing
a dress of stars, all shining in
the light of the cocktail party
and the laughter of her guests.

She carries in her pallid hand
a glass and walks about engaging
each small group in casual talk
until the party appears to fill
with joy. Both wife and mother,

she disappears into a bedroom
where coats and wraps adorn
the bed and where no one goes
but she, and weeps. No words
are said in this close place,

no secrets spoken. When she
returns to the party, she smiles
and moves from room to room
until each conversation grows
and each glass glows with ice.

V. P. Loggins is the author of The Wild Severance (2021), winner of the 26th Annual Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Competition, The Green Cup (2017), winner of the Cider Press Review Editors’ Book Prize, The Fourth Paradise (Main Street Rag 2010), and Heaven Changes (Pudding House Chapbook Series 2007). His poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Poetry East, Poetry Ireland Review, The Southern Review, and Tampa Review, among other journals. For more, visit www.vploggins.com.