l. ward abel

Sunny Side

She notices the burnt edges
of my blessings,
a pre-renaissance sepia tinge
even out in the open
to my complexion. I’ll admit

to my dispositions. She
the true survivor, like a sharp
blade. She wants to be
from the South.
She with enough reasons

for black and white filters,
yet Matisse is her decorator.
She senses my faith though
with what appears to be
night vision. I’ll try to be
more like her.


Poet, composer of music (Max Able / Abel, Rawls & Hayes) and spoken-word performer (Scapeweavel), L. Ward Abel lives in rural Georgia, and has been widely published in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including White Pelican Review, The Pedestal, Versal (Netherlands), Juked, Angel Face, OpenWide (UK) , Ink Pot, Texas Poetry Journal, Kritya (India), Words-Myth, edificeWrecked, The Reader (UK), others. His chapbook, Peach Box and Verge, has been published by Little Poem Press. Twenty of his poems are featured, along with an interview, in a recent print issue of erbacce (UK). His new full book of poems, Jonesing For Byzantium, has just been published at UK Authors Press (London).