"prologue to a poem"

observe with hungry wolf eyes,

surveil. interrogate.

bolt upright 3am

experience

smell | see | taste | touch | hear

process. absorb. note.

insight informs incitement,

percolate | caffeinate | agitate

drill down. find the precise

location of the grip.

recite. revise. repeat.

Lucinda Marshall is a writer, artist, and activist. Her poetry publications include Sediments, GFT, Tuck Magazine, Stepping Stones Magazine, Columbia Journal, Poetica, Haikuniverse, and ISLE. Her work appears in the anthologies "Poems in the Aftermath" (Indolent Books), "You Can Hear The Ocean" (Brighten Press) and "We Will Not Be Silenced" (Indie Blu(e) Publishing). She has been a finalist in Waterline Writers' Artists as Visionaries Climate Crisis Solutions contest and Third Wednesday's 2018 One Sentence Poem Contest.

Lucinda is the founder and host of the DiVerse Gaithersburg Poetry Reading and Open Mic. For more information about her poetry and other work, please visit her website, http://www.lucindamarshall.com.