by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

A Poetic Book Review (Senyru)

Only Nola knows
How alone she feels at home,
Shadowed by illness.

Her younger sister, Song,
Steals most of the spotlight as
She battles cancer.

For escape, a break,
Nola works at a resort
In Rocky Cove, Maine.

When she meets Carly,
Everything seems too perfect—
An instant best friend.

Carly starts clinging—
Flattery, compliment, or
Extreme destruction?

When Song visits them,
Carly creates some danger—
Cliff-hanging danger.

A Poetic Book Review (Concrete Poetry)

“I like you,” they say.

“You are unique,

Like, nerdy cool.”

“You are crazy oversensitive,

But kind,

And tough, when you need to be.”

You know, they are right—

I am wonderfully complex.

I am meticulously scattered,

Brilliantly ignorant, and

Confidently insecure.

Narcissistically compassionate,

Fearlessly vulnerable,

Depressingly joyful,

Autonomously clingy,

Frugally luxurious,

Privately candid,

Predictably spontaneous,

Rebelliously respectful,

Decisively doubtful,

Enthusiastically indifferent,

Stoically engaged,

Indefatigably surrendering,

Faithfully fickle,

Responsibly childish,

Scientifically Creative,

Judicially Gracious, and

Tactfully emotional.

I am,

Indeed,

All of these things

Except for when I am the

Exact opposite.