The November Editor's Pick Poet is Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Please feel free to email Jessica at: jessicasalmonson@gmail.com

SATURNA

Just take me to Saturna
That lighthouse was my home
I don't know how I got here
Someone carried me away.

I was a polished piece of glass
I was a broken shell
A tide pool of baby skates
And limpets on the quay.

That old wooden lighthouse
Is a long time gone
But for me it seems it stood there
Only yesterday.

I think they called me Bailey
It’s hard to quite recall
A lighthouse keeper's mangy dog
Howlin’ at the bay.

I’ve been dead a long long time
Yet I’m here anyway
I need to get back where I'm from
So help me if you may.

That butter clam you pocketed
Contains a part of me
So take it to Saturna
And toss it in the sea.

THE LOST EMOTION

Love is a sin that we learn
This weapon makes mothers lactate
Disarming, strong willed,
To be fed and fulfilled,
Never think again of those killed.

Hatred is a fin that we earn
Grants access to the arcade
We are playful in our sty
We are bleeding from one eye
We pretend we care if you die.

Comfort is the cloud where we yearn
For all that has left us insensate
We are slogging in the rain
While denying our own pain
Knowing none of us can pass here again.

HYMN FOR THE SWEET FORGOTTEN

This whole world
That hardly knew you
Oh no darlin’, this old world
It often fooled you
And now it’s time
You must be leaving
This old world, this old world.

This old world
Was filled with duty
Oh yes and this old world
Brought you such beauty
And now you find
You must be grieving
This whole world, this whole world.

This cold world 
What it has brought
Oh my sweet one, this world
What has it done to you
Now I have come
To sing you home
From this old world.

This old world
Such a painful one
I hear you honey, this world
So little hard won
Leave it behind
The darkle evening
In this whole world, this whole world.

Jessica Amanda Salmonson is a recipient of the World Fantasy Award, ReaderCon Certificate, and Lambda Award, author of THE TOMOE GOZEN SAGA in three volumes from Ace Books and Open Road Media; THE DEATH SONNETS (Rainfall) and other poetry collections; THE DEEP MUSEUM  (Ash-Tree Press) and other short story collections. A giant omnibus of novel, poems, and tales is forthcoming from Centipede Press. A new collection, THE COMPLETE WEIRD EPISTLES OF PENELOPE PETTIWEATHER, GHOST HUNTER is just out from Alchemy Press in England. The Sidecar Preservation Society released during Jessica's Diversicon Guest of Honor stint a new collection of verse, PETS GIVEN IN EVIDENCE OF OLD ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND OTHER BEWITCHED BEINGS which accumulatively give the impression of an older or alternate world of witches, their familiars, and fairies.