In 2019 Bella published the poem Retire Mint in The Cabinet of Heed (UK) (Link)

Retire Mint

Your Gastown
boutiques and Fentanyl
8 a.m. cappuccinos with the art dealers
the other chosen familyless.

Your apartment
near the steam clock
smoking pot, because you’re retired now
each day, free
after single motherhood, cancer, failed businesses (3?)

Entrepreneur/pioneer/workaholic
Now that you’ve finally stopped breathing
Work
My home is a day ahead.

I sleep when you wake
We cook in FaceTime
– your dinner, my breakfast –
but we never eat together.

What if you get sick again, Momma?
What if something happens and I’m not there?
Your wrist’s sore from playing guitar
I would kiss it with ice
make a sling with my umbilical chord.

In 2019 Bella published the poem Isla in Fly on the Wall Press (UK) (Link)

The poem Crosswords was published in the Voices Israel Anthology 2007.

Cross words

Heady dark air that doesn’t circulate
filling his throat, his lungs,
the spaces that used to be hers.

His comfort zone —

leather jacket in Fitzroy pubs
waking up at 3 pm on Sundays
sitting at the wooden table
in the warehouse
the crossword in front of him
his rich schoolboy friends beside him
the same faces, grown older
the same conversations

her empty coffee cup.

He decided not to keep your love
weighed the pros and cons
and found you to be on the side lacking.
Said,

I rather be without you
This is too hard
You, are too difficult

Does it trouble you at all
to sleep alone
without her tangerine body
her hello morning kisses
the joy, in you, she dug

She did the long yard,

took a scalpel to your chest
burnt the layers under your skin
whittled
until she felt
the radiant brush of butterfly wing

She witnessed you
self you show almost no one
share with almost no one
are with almost no one

So, enjoy your pub-crawl
your night sex you won’t be able to remember
your crossword puzzle of paper
rather than life

Number 3 across:
a five letter word signifying remorse
—the liability for letting go of her hand