Every night when she goes to sleep, a woman dreams of erotic encounters with different men. She dreams of being the sponge squeezed to foaming in a gas station attendant's hand, and of twining her bare skin with a sea lion's thick pelt under the watchful eye of the sea lion trainer. From a gas station attendant to a sea lion trainer, a watchmaker to a teacher, a furrier to an astrologer, each evening's new encounter is more sensual and extravagant than the last.

The poems and prose of Calliope explore universal themes with grace, evocative imagery, poignancy, and humor. In "Waitress," an overqualified young woman feels out of place in the restaurant where her mother worked for several summers. A grade-school foe displays her invincibility in "Playground: 1965." In "A Lesson from Picasso," tourists are transfixed by Guernica, and pulled into war's horror. A family buries their beloved mother in "As If We Were Ancient Egyptians." In a humorous piece, "The Pharmacy,"a quick tour of the drugstore reveals products for all of life's ages and stages. A child is drawn into the dangerous "Spider Webs" of creepy Uncle Reno. Women everywhere will relate to these poems, essays, and short stories. Calliope is published annually by Women Who Write, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Louisville, Kentucky. www.WomenWhoWrite.com