AM Roselli

AM Roselli is a writer and artist living in Hudson Valley, New York. Her collection of illustrated poetry, Love of the Monster, was published in 2016. Her writing has appeared in The Stillwater Review, The Paragon Journal, Literary Mama, Front Porch Review, Panoplyzine, Oddball, Firefly and The Absurdist. Her art was featured in the A3 Review and Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY.

Response to creative prompt: "When I look in the mirror, I see..."

I created a sketch at my mother's nursing home while looking at her. Out of her six children, people have always said that me and my mother, Carmella a.k.a Millie to her friends, could be twins. I take this as a supreme compliment, though I wish I had her movie star smile. She is and has always been the mirror I hold myself up to.

In a period of eleven weeks that began November 2017, my formidable father, a retired FBI agent and amazing storyteller, died in his sleep; my live-in mother-in-law, a stained-glass artist whose long legs once graced the cover of a Perry Mason novel, passed away; and my vibrant mother who at 81 years old taught conversational Italian and rode the Cyclone at Coney Island, suffered a major stroke and continues to suffer. While none of these people were ‘young’ —they were. I’m currently working on a collection, The Pegasus Clock, poems of love, loss and growing older.