Bio

Lois Elaine Heckman grew up in Los Angeles where she received a degree in Italian from UCLA. She has lived for many years in Milan, Italy. Her works have appeared previously in The Fib Review, and among her other credits are Shot Glass Journal, Bent Ear Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Tilt-a-Whirl, New Verse News, Persimmon Tree and Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine. She won the 2010 New England Shakespeare Festival Rubber Ducky Sonnet Contest and the 2013 Winning Writers Margaret Reid Poetry Prize for Traditional Verse, also achieving recognition in various other international competitions, such as those sponsored by Poetry on the Lake, Hungry Hill, and Cannon Poets. Her chapbook, "Out of Nowhere" (White Violet Press - Kelsay Books), was published in 2013.

She
lifts
heat and
heaviness,
then forces it down
to accentuate a ruffle
or reinforce a dart, steam filtering through fabric,
like sauna mist penetrates skin's
thirstiness. Wrinkles
melt into
smoothness,
and
forms
emerge,
to embrace
the body, wrapping
it with color, softness, shine and
hints at secrets to discover underneath, as heat
molds the silk into gossamer
temptation for her
fingers, and
turmoil
for
his.