A Life Unlived
by Tobi Cogswell

Twenty years ago
she’d been bursting
with dreams of being famous
for her personality.

Twenty years ago
she’d made raucous love
on a pier in Monte Carlo ,
kept her passport in her purse,
bought lottery tickets
and smiled into the eyes of strangers.

Twenty years ago
it didn’t used to matter
if there was no juice
or the refrigerator wasn’t cold enough.

When did she stop singing with the radio?

Tobi Cogswell is a two-time Pushcart nominee. Credits include Illya’s Honey, REAL, Iodine Poetry Journal, Slipstream, StepAway (UK), Turbulence (UK), Front Porch Review and Rufous Salon (Sweden); forthcoming in Bacopa, Compass Rose, Alligator Stew (UK), The Broken Plate, Border Crossing, I-70 Review, Incandescent (UK) and Pale House – Letters to Los Angeles. Her latest chapbook is “Surface Effects in Winter Wind”, (Kindred Spirit Press). She is the co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.sprreview.com).