Synkroniciti is glad to welcome back Californian poet Peggy Schimmelman with “Nocturnal Invasion,” a poem bearing witness to the nighttime anxiety many of us experience, as darkness becomes ground for “a parade of wounded faces:/ parents, old lovers, co-workers, friends/ and oh my god, children/ who carry my failures like crosses/ and somehow even tomorrow’s missteps/ which the ghosts assure me will happen.” What is it that makes some of us prone to insomnia and overwhelming feelings of guilt–is it the chemicals of our cells or something half remembered in the depths of our subconscious minds? Peggy is vulnerable and her imagery is evocative–full of crickets and a gurgling fountain. We feel as if we are there in the dark, too. The rhythm of alliteration and assonance works into a feverish climax in the third stanza, only to melt back into the night in the fourth and final stanza as she steadies herself by observing her spouse sleeping peacefully, untouched by her frantic visions.
Read “Nocturnal Invasion” in Synkroniciti’s “Haunting” issue, Vol. 6, No. 4, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Peggy Schimmelman is the poet laureate of Livermore, California. Her Missouri Ozark roots are often reflected in her writing, which includes the poetry chapbooks Crazytown,Tick-Tock and Make me Your Love Song, along with the novels Insomniacs, Inc. and Whippoorwills. She is a published songwriter who plays percussion in the volunteer band Heart Strings, and her love of music drives much of her poetry, as do her real and imagined encounters with ghosts, not all of them friendly.
Her work has appeared in the North American Review, Synkroniciti, Naugatuck River Review, Peregrine, WinningWriters.com, Pacific Review, Comstock Review, and many other print and online publications.