Anita is one of those agile girls
whose limber and daring I envy.
Her front flips and back flips,
backbends and full splits.
I can’t even cartwheel.
I do a competent somersault,
but it garners little praise.
So, I spend a good deal of time
just laying in the grass.
Observing.
Awed by long, lanky, bendy bodies –
especially Anita’s –
twisting, turning, and taking flight.
Wondering why and how
she could do such things so skillfully,
when those skills so skillfully eluded me.
Or was it the passion to try?
But Anita’s dexterity
defies the norms of stretchability
because Anita adds double-jointed
to her impressive athletic ability.
She often demonstrates her loose-jointed trait
by bending her willowy hand the wrong way;
masterfully mis-shaping her long, freckled arm,
as if made of soft, moist, modeling clay.
She can do the same with her shoulders and knees
until her bowed silhouette looks strange indeed:
a favorite umbrella blown inside out
by a rib-bending gust in a strong, spring shower.
Illogical and ludicrous.
Almost cartoonish.
Watching her move I feel ever defeated,
disjointed,
dysfunctional.
A dyed-in-the-wool, tried and failed tumbler.
Forever to watch from the shade of a tree,
where I marvel at my elastic friend,
who can bend,
and bend,
and bend.
Author: Anne Celano Frohna
I have been writing for as long as I could hold a pencil in hand and would not feel complete without it.
And I actually made a meager living at it (and as an editor) for 25 years.
I worked for newspapers and magazines, in graphic arts and advertising, and wrote several local history books.
But I have also taught English in Japan, been a Nanny/family chef in Italy, worked in and for museums, was an Airbnb Superhost for four years, as well as an Etsy shop owner, where I sold vintage items I found over the years at thrift stores and yard sales.
After moving to Arizona with my family in 2010, I completed a series of different writing projects, including two books of creative non-fiction:
Just West of the Midwest: a comedy (Based on journals I kept during my two years as an English teacher in rural Japan.)
Within Close Range: short stories of an American Childhood (Short stories and poems about growing up as the middle of five children in suburban Chicago.)
But in the past few years, I have found my voice in poetry.
I am a mother of two wonderful girls, Eva (26) and Sophia (24) and wife to one wonderful husband, Kurt.
In 2023, with our girls grown and off on their own, my husband and I packed up our things and moved to the tip of Italy’s heel, to the Salento region, where I continue to work on my poetry, as well as a new fiction project, and indulge in my passion for mosaics - all of which you can view on my Instagram page @ acfrohna.
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Dog-eared Stories by anne celano frohna 
Beautifully done!
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