Rainbows & Unicorns, by Jenny Morelli

Poetry, chapbook, 48 pages, from Bottlecap Features. First, there’s the hurt. Then comes the healing. And the bridge from one to the other are stepping-stone words on a page. There are many truths and realities in any family, but one thing’s for sure. Ask each member of that family, and their truth will differ from yours; after all, truth is just perception, and not all of it is rainbows and unicorns. Memories and yesterday’s ghosts are shifty little creatures that love to mess with the muse and memoirist, but black and white and all the grays betwixt are real when they’re conjured and channeled from mind through hand to paper, so within these pages lie the harsh and heartfelt truths I’ve recalled in my nether state writing, where all the magic and mayhem happens. Rainbows & Unicorns is a poetic collection of memories with universal truths and traumas that I hope can help provide validation and healing to my readers through the power of words. Jenny Morelli is a high school English teacher who lives in New Jersey with her husband and cats. She is often inspired by her students to write about universally traumatic personal experiences. She has been published in a number of literary magazines, including Spare Parts for a novel excerpt, Spillwords and Red Rose Thorns and Scars tv for several themed poems and essays, and Bottlecap Press for her poetry chapbook This is Not a Drill.   She’s often inspired by her students and the memories they evoke for her, which have helped her write tons of poetry and memoirs, as well as two young adult novels, all about self- discovery, self-acceptance, surviving a toxic home, and defying expectations.