Beverly Joyce

What does it mean to be the only? I grew up an only child, yet until COVID I had rarely pondered the idea. Of the lonely inside the only. Our own stories are found in the blanks between the ink of others, so the marks which keep the line going, whether ours or theirs, are always there. Ever forward. Until they are not. I thought a lot about loss that year, how the hurt hurts more inside the miss of the only. This painting of Everett Road Covered Bridge, the only remaining covered bridge in Summit County, Ohio, suggests the ever-present absence of the only.

Everett Road Covered Bridge

Beverly Rose Joyce lives in Brecksville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, with her husband, Carl, and their two daughters, Mallory and Samantha, along with their two dogs, Shadow and Reggie. She holds a BA in English from Baldwin-Wallace University and a MA in English from Cleveland State University. She was a high school English teacher for sixteen years. Her poetry, photography, and plein air paintings have been published in various literary and art journals, magazines, and anthologies.

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