Cindy Glovinsky

Sonnet for Ira
 
Before you, there was Phillip, Max and Dan,
To whom I offered all my love and trust.
They held their noses, mumbled words and ran,
And left my crushed heart bleeding in the dust.

For years, I sat distressed before my mirror,
And stormed and wept and starved and blamed my face.
With each new loss, my lizard fate drew nearer:
To be excluded from the human race.

Then you picked up my heart and made it whole,
A prince who showed the others up as frogs,
And I, amazed, embraced the princess role,
And joys rained down on us like cats and dogs.

So now I praise the times when I was blessed
To be so scorned and shunned by all the rest.  

Cindy Glovinsky’s poems and stories have appeared in Aries, Barbaric Yawp, Bear River Review, The Chaffin Journal, Connecticut River Review, Fresh Words, Illuminations, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Loch Raven Review, One Page Poetry Anthology, Pacific Coast Journal, Plainsongs and Ploughshares.  Her poetry collection, Unclenching, was released in September 2023 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and made the finals for the Tucson Literary Festival Contest. In addition, she published three non-fiction books with St. Martin’s Press, and a memoir, Music, Lakes & Blue Corduroy with Thunder Bay Press in Michigan. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has degrees in music, English, and social work from Oberlin College and the University of Michigan.