Bio

Lois Elaine Heckman grew up in Los Angeles, receiving a degree in Italian from UCLA. She has lived for many years as an expat in Milan, Italy, becoming a volunteer nurse and first aid instructor for the Italian Red Cross. Her works have appeared previously in The Fib Review, and among her other past and forthcoming credits are Boston Literary Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, Victorian Violet Press, Lucid Rhythms, Tilt-a-Whirl, Prole, The Sonnet Scroll at the Poetry Porch and Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine. She is the proud winner of the 2010 New England Shakespeare Festival Rubber Ducky Sonnet Contest.

For
a
moment,
tenderness
hides behind the lust,
a shy child wrapped in his mother's
skirts, peering curiosity at adult capers,
half in wonderment, half in fear that he might be overcome. When the tempest subsides,
quieted fingers reach out fondly towards a cheek,
eyes empty their frenzy and lips
utter thankfulness
for sharing
both sides
of
love.