Decorum
Gloria Heffernan
We follow the rules of office etiquette,
passing each other in the hallway with a polite nod,
feeling like a classical music station
that longs for the languid notes of Coltrane.
Gloria Heffernan
Gloria Heffernan is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Moments of Color and Cloud (Shanti Arts Publishing). Her craft book, Exploring Poetry of Presence (Back Porch Productions) won the CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. She received the 2022 Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize. Gloria is the author of the collections Fuse (Shanti Arts Publishing), Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books). Her forthcoming collection, Moments of Color and Cloud will be published by Shanti Arts in 2026.