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Click title to download microchap
All Previously Published
Midnight Suppers, Storyteller Blog, 2025
Grandma’s Spring Tonic Soup, Highland Park Poetry, 2026
On the Making of Pizzelle, In Languid Lusciousness with Lemon
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Sharing Midnight Suppers with My Dad and Daughter
My parents were visiting.
I tried to be extra quiet,
picking up our fussy baby,
padding down to the kitchen
at midnight to warm a bottle for
our dear newborn.
I found my father staring
into the open refrigerator.
“Searching for a midnight snack?”
I smiled, supposing his
nocturnal snacking a
holdover from the days
he came home from
work at midnight and
warmed up the supper
Mom left for him.
I often stayed awake
to sit with him.
He always offered me a bite.
Sometimes, rarely, I sampled
his food. My late night
sustenance was simply
sitting with him, telling him
about my day as he ate.
This night I reached into the
fridge, pulled out
Jennie’s bottle and the
last slice of Dad’s
hazelnut birthday cake
While her bottle warmed,
Dad held his hungry,
fussing first grandchild,
calming her with loving talk.
We sat together as
I fed Jennie until she fell
asleep and Dad finished his cake.
When we headed upstairs,
Dad whispered,
“You know, I’ve always loved
our midnight suppers.”
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Grandma’s Spring Tonic Soup
Greens, fresh from garden
or grocer’s shelf,
even dandelion, added to
garlic, onion, carrots, herbs,
sizzle in my skillet. Once
softened, I toss them
into a pot where water waits
with roast chicken remnants.
Those ingredients play
together until supper time when
I pour them over boiled pastina.
Dipping my spoon
into the bowl, I taste
Grandma’s love, her kiss.
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Joan Leotta © 2026
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Click title to download PDF microchap
Cover: Day at the Beach
by Lauri Burke
(with dolphin added by JanK)
*
Every Origami Microchap
may be printed, for free,
from this website.
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Moments Before Dawn
Before the sun
transforms night’s worries
into day’s sure steps,
dampness stains
my cement drive,
thanks to evening showers
that played on the roof
keeping me awake all night.
Streaks of cloud play
among still glittering
bits of star.
Moon is a
dark round wafer,
sitting on a silver chalice
rim. Weaker,
he has already
surrendered primacy
to sun, who will soon
arise and reign.
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Winter Sunrise
Sunrise is a daily
lesson to persist.
Daily, sun struggles
to crack open
frozen horizons,
cling to chilled sky long
enough to provide
some warmth,
short though her
reign will be.
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Summer Sun
Night has barely
finished breathing
when sun
pushes him aside.
Blazing, even from
those first moments,
she shimmers.
She rapidly ascends
until only shade,
night’s gossamer
shawl, offers any
respite from her
hard hot glare.
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Dolphin at Dawn- New Year's Day
From the porch
I looked out onto
a gray sea
extending to a gray sky
populated with just a few
dying stars.
As a bit of sun
tried to slip up
through the horizon,
a black dolphin
slowly, silently
bobbed up out
of the water.
He slipped through
the channel,
rhythm steady,
rocking up then
nosing down.
As I watched,
he moved ever
outward from the shore
to meet that spot
of orange on the horizon.
Slowly, steady, never
minding the surrounding
hopeless gray of sea and sky.
His journey
gives me courage
for mine.
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Previously Published as
Black Dolphin Dawn in ‘Snapdragon’ Fall, 2018
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Ocean Aubade
Lullaby waves
cradle my senses
in deep sleep
until pink inserts
itself between
navy satin water
and the still dark sky.
I slip downstairs to
join rows of waiting
seagulls along the
tide line.
Together,
we stare out,
watching that
spot in the sky
where sun will
escape the grip of night.
*
Joan Leotta © 2020
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Click title to download PDF microchap
Cover: Dancing under the Moon
by Lauri Burke
*
Every Origami Microchap
may be printed, for free,
from this website.
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Dancing under the Moon
In the dark before dawn
I pad down the cool cement
of our driveway to
pluck the daily news
from its resting place
at the base of the mailbox.
On those days
when the full moon
is slipping down
behind my neighbor's roof
to rest in the heat
of the day,
I salute his silvery countenance
and, since no one else
is watching, I
dance in his
waning glory
covered in the shimmery
glow of
his last full smile.
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The Full Moon Rises
The moon rises
out my back window
bright and round,
bigger as the sky darkens
seeming close but
out of reach.
Its twin rests softly
in the waters of
Caw Caw creek.
That shimmering
badge of light
remains still, captive.
Mine to enjoy
in sky and water
until the curving of the
earth's rotation
pulls it away.
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Moon as Bauble
So now
in the early morn darkness
moon is like
the star atop a fairy wand—
a wand made of
a line of stars
aligned
with Jupiter and Mars.
Age of Aquarius greets
me now pointing
my way down the drive
to what seems
the start of
an ordinary day.
Feeling their light
as I walk in the deep darkness
lit only by the sparkle of
their line and light,
my heart skips a beat
reminding me
days are only ordinary
if we think them so.
Joan Leotta © 2016
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Moonlight Over My Town
Full moon shows off my
hometown, its silver glow
transforming silent silver
skyscrapers into soft blue
sentinels of night
along each riverbank.
Those same skyscrapers,
piled high
along the nearer bank,
stretch to stroke moon's
soft, shining face.
Arched girders
bridge the banks
giving hope to the buildings
on the far side
that they as well will be able
to touch the moon,
and so can I.
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Silver Crescent Lullaby
Moon's curve cups the stars
gently in its cradle so
by morn they will sleep
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Full Moon's Glow
Full moon
draws me outside,
into its glow.
Over and over I snap photos,
like a new mother
with her first child.
Moon, my full moon,
glows and shimmers
casting its glow
over all I love,
near and far
here and passed on.
Moon's full light marks
our rendezvous point
in the universe—
that Eden, that paradise,
the place where we will
gather
when life is done
on earth.
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Joan Leotta © 2016
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Joan Leotta, plays with words on page and stage. Her folktale programs (ages 5-adult) highlight food, family, and strong women. Her show, live and on zoom, “Louisa May Alcott” is for children and adults. Joan’s on the board of London’s LABRC: is a Regional Rep for the North Carolina Writers Network. She’s taught storytelling and writing, for LABRC, the North Carolina Poetry Society, NC Writers Network, and others. Internationally published as essayist, poet, short story writer, novelist, she’s a multiple nominee for Pushcart and Best of Net. Her publications include One Art, The Ekphrastic Review, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.