By: Jennifer Joyce
Looking out from the jetty, at hidden sand bars,
uncertain the hour which they will appear.
Molasses-thick moments tick by, as
ambiguous loss grows over here.
Megansett Beach faces Scraggy Neck.
Your old flag-pole peeks through the reed.
Celestial bodies control earthly movement,
and moments, and answers I need.
After the waters dwindle as they do,
you can no longer take the path left behind
across the uncharted waters where
reality replaces what remains imagined in the mind.
To surrender or journey beyond
and shelve the questions and conversation.
It is time to embrace joy and fly -
and thus, I will abandon my station.
Originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Jennifer Joyce Webber has lived in North Carolina for the past eight years. Jennifer started writing regularly during reading and writing workshops she held for her daughters, whom she homeschooled through high school for health reasons. Both girls now in college, she is reviewing her fifteen years of notebooks and spending as much free time as possible writing and editing. Jennifer has been attending poetry meetings with the Durham Writers Group for the past year, and currently serves as the host for the North Raleigh Critique Group, a subsidiary of Triangle Writers. Jennifer works part-time as a school psychologist for PresenceLearning. She and her husband own a non-profit, CF Parent Education Group, which provides bimonthly workshops to parents of those with Cystic Fibrosis. During the pandemic she is enjoying more quality time with her husband, daughters, and dog.
Behind the scenes:
"During the summer of 2021, I visited my parents, whom I hadn't seen for 18 months due to the pandemic. My mother has Alzheimers, and my father is her caregiver. During my time away, the disease had progressed and was evidenced immediately upon entering my childhood home. Social isolation and silent unspoken despair had taken over. Every morning of my six-week stay, I rose early and walked to Megansett Beach, a special place of comfort. Sitting on the jetty, the tide coming in over the sand bars reminded me of the pandemic sweeping in and out, and of Alzheimers setting in, unwelome. After six weeks, I returned to my life in North Carolina knowing supports were in place for my parents, but it was a bittersweet departure."