"Friends" by Moin H. Shah

I write about connection between women
with no history except heat—
creeping through loins,
waking them nights, weeping into pillows.

Children pluck bits of their flesh.
Men slice through long-standing friendships.
Other women slant green eyes
at each triumphant smile.

Somehow in the jangle of signals
women find each other
to lodge, comfort, nourish,
a head cradled on a breast.

I write what I hope is true—
about new friendship,
a wise woman's song.

BIO: Patricia Wellingham-Jones, a former psychology researcher and writer/editor, is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. She has work published in numerous anthologies, journals, and internet magazines including Möbius, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Phoebe, A Room of Her Own, Visions International, Red River Review, Tiger's Eye, Horsethief's Journal, Midwest Poetry Review, Creekwalker, Rattlesnake Review, Nanny Fanny, Taj Mahal Review, Niederngasse, and Thunder Sandwich. She edited River Voices: Poets of Butte, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity Counties, California and Labyrinth: Poems & Prose. Joining the chapbook, Don't Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer, are her collections, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level, A Gathering Glance (#43 in the Lummox Press Little Red Book series), and Bags. She was named Featured Writer for March/April 2002 at www.OutStretch.net, in August 2003 Purse Stories (www.PurseStories.com), in Autumn 2003 Tiger's Eye, and March 2004 Long Story Short. Her winning poem was set to music in the SongText Contest, 2003 (www.songsforall.com). Recent awards include the Reuben Rose International Poetry Prize (Israel) and Surprise Poetry Slam Grand Prize, Apollo's Lyre (www.apolloslyre.com/). Her website is www.snowcrest.net/pamelaj/wellinghamjones/home.htm. Email: c/o Moondance (Photo credit Rick Jones)