ABOUT ARLENE WEINER

Arlene Weiner grew up in New York City. She lives in Pittsburgh, where she is active in Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange and the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop. She has been a Shakespeare scholar, a cardiology technician, a den mother, a member of a group developing educational software, and an editor. Her poems have appeared in several journals, including the Paterson Literary Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, and U.S. 1 Worksheets; have been anthologized; and have been heard on The Writer’s Almanac. Ragged Sky Press published two collections of her poems, Escape Velocity (2006), City Bird (2016), and More (2022). Arlene was awarded a fellowship to the MacDowell Colony. She also writes plays. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co. produced her play Findings, and Carlow University Theatre performed her monologue Clothesline.

A SAMPLE FROM City Bird

Flamenco Dancer in White

Oh, my girl, city bird, when I see you stand
above the others, head high, skirts high,
I believe you’re beautiful. You’re ready
to stamp your heels, swirl, leaving behind
the gray day, when you peck peck peck,
head down, on the gray street for bread.
You’re not pretty, city bird, you’re like me, pure
as city snow. Now spine straight, neck long,
for a minute you belong above the others.
Stretch upward, assured—fly.
City bird, dance for us, who keep our heads low,
dance more furiously than falling city snow.