Not addicted deranged
estranged from God
nor blind deaf lame
depressed autistic shamed
trans bi-sexual gay
Not deserted disowned
cast away from home
nor suicidal homicidal
matri- patri- fratricidal
Not immigrant minority
amputee refugee
nor survivor of
rabies cancer flood
avalanche of mud
poverty abuse nor war
She has never flung herself
to shore from a life raft
on rough sea
taught a chimpanzee to read
nor raced a team from
Settler’s Bay to Nome
Just an old white woman
happy healthy debt-free
bereft of misery
whose father loved her
mother loved her
husband loves her so
too old to be a prodigy
too young to be a sage
well past middle age
she fits no niche
Joan Wiese Johannes
Joan Wiese Johannes has been widely published in journals/anthologies and has three chapbooks and a book of poetry. Her chap Sensible Shoes was the winner of the Alabama Poetry Society’s contest in 2009 and her full-length collection, Lamenting My Failure to Learn How to Tap Dance and Other Missteps will be published by Water’s Edge Press later this year. Winner of the 2011 regional poetry award from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Society, Joan has also received awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin People and Ideas, The HAL Contest, Free Verse, and English Journal. She co-edited the 2012 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar and the 2019 Winter issue of Bramble with her husband Jeffrey.
Portage Magazine 