A Sea Bird Over the Ocean

by Catherine Coundjeris

Purple mums and gold ones, too 

deck the front stoop 

as the milky light 

filters through the  

misty green of the oaks, 

hanging over the old house. 

She waits for news 

and the hours creep along. 

Her thoughts, 

scattering like fallen leaves 

over the road. 

Soon it will be over 

and she will try 

to remember his face 

and recall his stories, 

but the days rush past, 

and her memory will dim. 

Tomorrow touches yesterday 

and all becomes dust 

except the spirit 

which wings on into the unknown. 

like a sea bird over the ocean. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A former elementary school teacher, Catherine Coundjeris has also taught writing at Emerson College and ESL writing at Urban College in Boston.  She is published in literary magazines, including 34thParallel Magazine, Borrowed Solace, Arie Chart, New Readers Magazine, The Drabble, Nightingale and Sparrow, Rune Bear, Backchannels, Inkling Magazine of The Storyteller’s Cottage, Finding the Birds, Yellow Arrow Journal, The Dawntreader, Visions with Voices, and Nine Cloud Journal.  Currently she is living with her family in Frederick and she is working on a YA novel. Catherine volunteers as an ESL Coordinator with the Literacy Council of Frederick County and she is very passionate about adult literacy.  

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Steven McCrystal lives in a town called Bo’ness in Scotland. He started painting in Art Therapy and found the creative outlet very beneficial. It helped him come to terms with the traumas he’d been through and enabled him to look at his troubles in a different light.  

McCrystal enjoys painting abstract art, but his repertoire also consists of emotive work and elements of his bipolar experiences. He has found that there is nothing better than feeling an emotional connection to the art he produces and hopes viewers of his art find that same connection.