Janelle Solviletti writes the Lyrical: My name is Janelle Solviletti and I am currently a junior at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. I am working to finish my bachelors of communication degree with concentrations in public relations and advertising. I have a passion for creative writing and have been writing short stories and poems throughout all of high school and college in my spare time. I also devote my time to running cross-country and track at Marist and love being outdoors.

Poet Janelle Solviletti.

Midnight Sand Dollar

A beachcombers search for a mermaid’s lost coins,

a devotional lovers trek for the fragile heart of Christ that has stopped humming.

Grandmother sang sweet melodies of sea cookies and snapper biscuits,

the five doves whispered away the words of sin and prayer.

Sea beds of velvety spines and smells of Cape Cod sea breeze kiss the wind,

Grandmother’s silver pocket watch ticks the ticks of suffering away.

Midday mauve and daybreak doom,

the sound of her voice I hear in my room.

Coastline waves collapse with whiskey and wits of washed up sailor men,

candlestick’s fluorescent gloom cast shadows that light up her weighting heart.

Yet the smell of death lurks round’ the thickening walls that swallow her whole,

and hymns of seaward anchors colliding whisper through the front door.

Bleach white urchins harmonize the Atlantic cove,

and Grandmother rocks in her rickety rocker.

She holds on to the golden sun by a fringe at her fingertips,

and rocks to the whirring of her sand dollars dancing at dawn.

— Janelle Solviletti

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