Diane Vogel Ferri’s full-length poetry book is Everything is Rising (Luchador Press). Her latest novel is No Life But This: A Novel of Emily Warren Roebling (Atbosh Media) Her essays have been published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Scene Magazine, and Yellow Arrow Journal, among others. Her poems can be found in numerous journals such as Wend Poetry, Blue Heron Review, Rubbertop Review, and Poet Lore. Her previous publications are Liquid Rubies (poetry), The Volume of Our Incongruity (poetry), and The Desire Path (novel). She has done many poetry readings locally. Diane’s essay, “I Will Sing for You” was featured at the Cleveland Humanities Festival in 2018. A former teacher, she holds an M.Ed from Cleveland State University and is a founding member of Literary Cleveland. Her poem, For You, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net 2023

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Seven Deadly Sins

She buys the magazine at the checkout counter,
the one with the story on that hot actor
she fantasizes about at night
when she is in bed with her husband.

She reads the lies about these strangers cover to cover
as she eats an entire quart of overpriced ice cream.
She could share the magazine with her neighbor
Cindy, but let her buy her own.

Cindy's husband makes more money
and the bitch doesn't even have to work.
She's probably out getting a manicure.
She hates Cindy and her skinny jeans too.

Maybe Cindy's husband will lose his job
in this crappy economy and then all they
will have is their volunteer work at the mission
in the disgusting, rundown area of the city.

She's sick of thinking about Cindy
so she goes up to the bedroom to lull
herself to sleep thinking about the actor.
She'll have a snack when she gets up.

When she awakens an hour later
she looks in the mirror and begins to cry
at the bags under her eyes, the way her makeup
doesn't hide the scar, the frizziness of her hair.

It's a beautiful summer day,
but she doesn't look out the window.
The church bells are ringing,
but she doesn't hear them.

5 comments:

Daniel Bell said...

You capture more in a poem than I can in an entire book.

John Ettorre said...

No higher praise than Daniel just issued. Do take it to heart, Diane, since he's only one of many who think that highly about your work. And do keep writing.

Amy said...

Were you looking in on me last week? And how did you know my neighbor's name is Cindy?? ;o)
Great poem. Reminds me of the thing I wrote for Six Sentences.

Kat Mortensen said...

Sad state of affairs, but all too real and common. Very well-articulated in this piece.

Cliff said...

Too much looking in and not enough looking out.

Too many sins are committed due to EGO=Edging God Out.