Are Cherries in Bloom?

Voice cracks, words tumble,

Would you be my friend?

She asks her in parking lot

of Heaven’s Garden.

Face flushes. Eyes squint. 

A smile appears in corner

of her lips painted in rose,

deep center of magnolia. 

She offers her a kind hand.

A conversation of streams 

flowing, palm trees swaying 

with breeze. Cherries to suckle.

Jerrice J Baptiste is a visual artist, poet, author of nine books. Her watercolor drawings on paper have been accepted or forthcoming in Synchronized Chaos, Las Laguna Art Gallery exhibit in California, MER, Spirit Fire Review, Jerry Jazz Musician Magazine. She’s presented her art work at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY in 2025. She’s been featured as a solo artist at The Mountain Top Library in Tannersville, NY in 2025 & 2026. Her most recent poetry book called Coral in the Diaspora is published by Abode Press in 2024. Her poetry has been published in numerous magazines and journals, Artemis Journal, The Yale Review, Mantis, Kosmos Journal and hundreds of others.