Please join Synkroniciti in welcoming poet Laura C. Lippman with three poems exploring realities that overlap with our own but contain the unexpected. “Happy as a Clam at High Tide” delves into a common English idiom, wondering about “mollusk happiness”–“do clams enjoy the swish in their embrace of flux and flow, salt and clear, reach and spit and peristaltic pleasure?” The playful combination of alliteration and assonance accentuates the lighthearted humor and joy in rhythmic language. “Bodybuilders” is a quirky peek into the surrealistic world of those who sculpt their bodies. We observe a couple meeting at the gym. “He appreciated the curves and the muscle contours and even the bones underneath.” The visual form is whimsical and entertaining, mirroring our subjects, serving to make us more curious about this couple. Looks and assumptions are deceiving but we are drawn by the potential for connection, no matter how tenuous. Finally, “I Buy My First Car” probes the way women are treated by the automotive sales and repair industry. “The men in Service at the dealership ignore me. Maybe my large belly embarrasses them,” and posits a new strategy–something quiet and dangerous, rather than theatrics–for getting repairs done on a lemon. Laura’s intelligent observation of our world and her delightful sense of humor create a combination of satire with empathy that is refreshing and a bit mischievous.
Experience Laura’s sparkling poetry in the newest issue of Synkroniciti, “Curiosity,” now available for digital download here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Laura Celise Lippman’s work has appeared in Avatar Review, Brief Wilderness, The Broken Plate, Chained Muse, Crack the Spine, Crosswinds, El Portal, Evening Street Review, Flights, Hey I’m Alive Magazine, La Presa, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Perceptions Magazine, Plainsongs, Pontoon Poetry, Poydras Review, Journal of Family Practice, The Meadow, Neologism Poetry Journal, New English Review, Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders, and Spotlong Review. She is a co-author of the book Writing While Masked: Reflections of 2020 and Beyond.
She attended Bryn Mawr College and received her M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She practiced medicine for thirty-seven years and raised two children in the Pacific Northwest. Since retirement, she continues to take poetry courses at Hugo House in Seattle. She enjoys the outdoors and sharing her wonder at the natural world.