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

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Jury Duty

Captive and claustrophobic
in a space with too many people,
no empty chairs and uncomfortable
bodies line dirt-colored hallways,
a clock is frozen at 11:00,
and this is how time passes.

In the quiet room, ruffling newsprint,
an occasional cough, the dull hum
of traffic and a periodic vocal
sigh of discontent are the only sounds
as the man across from me reads
the telephone book, as he has been for 36 minutes,
licking three fingers to turn each page.

Outside our glass walls it vibrates
with muffled laughter from the
socially-adept,the friend-makers,
those who enjoy talking as pastime.
Names are announced and all freeze,
looking enviously on those chosen.
They are allowed to move. The herd is thinning.

In the free world contrails in the sky
represent humans traveling somewhere,
anywhere,
while I am forcibly stationary
on this lovely spring day.

4 comments:

Amy said...

I saw a woman standing outside her car taking pics of those contrails today. Strange that you mention them here, too. Sorry you had to be inside today.

Amy said...

I don't know why this posted twice. Sorry!

Lena said...

What an interesting topic for a poem! You captured that experience to the tee.

Did you get called to serve?

Sanole said...

I was wondering how it went...