HOTAND COLD Perhaps 100million years To rise from naught, then disappear Above the Hot Spot in the Earth That to Hawaiian Chain gave birth. The oldest now perhaps just stumps, Once mountains proud, now merely bumps Long passed from magma cauldron where They first broke through the surface there. The youngest rise majestically For miles above […]
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AT A DISTANCE Gently rolling, runneled hills, Colored like a daffodil. Rivulets to ocean spill Under cloudy skies. Atmosphere of shrouding haze Rising from the surface waves, Where beneath lie ancient caves Never brought to light. Yet this sky’s a different hue From what we’re accustomed to B Yellow, not a trace of blue, Dares to […]
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WATER FOR PUERTO RICO (A Reaction to Puerto Rico’s Struggles) Dad always said, “No te ahogues en un vaso de agua.” “It means don’t drown in a glass of water,” I’d explain to my non-Spanish-speaking friends, wanting to share the magic because, for some reason, when he recited such words, I was able to hold my breath longer underwater, […]
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It falls on me like a net, chainmail over my shoulders, wanting to kiss its satin cousin. I raise fists and switchblade claws but there’s no piercing through. Bubbles like swollen screams race up like flags. Like flares marking I was once here. Bio: Valentina Cano is a student of classical singing who spends whatever free time she […]
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Blood and Tears. War and Hate. Death and Destruction. Hell and Fate. I am dead because I’m not you. What you said? Hate is not true. Why cleanse me? Are you blind? We are brothers. Open your mind. Why ignore that? It’s a fact. We’re both human, so don’t attack. I pity you with your dead. […]
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Photography – FOG ROLLING IN (By Melissa R. Mendelson)
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The cruelty of mankind is to be blind to innocence. When the streets run red, some awaken to the pain, but others stay cold, hard. The beauty of humanity is strangled by hands fumbling with knowledge, minds refusing to open, and some see while others stay blind, ignorant. The streets behind me are covered with the dead, innocence caught in […]
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THE RETIRED ARTIST Such a relief to shut down my temples. I’m just a roof, some columns, an auditorium deep but empty. And, if you’re keeping score, I forgo the easel, the baton, and all that writing across time. If they want me, they can drag me out of what I’ve already accomplished. I plan to be […]
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Song of America I. I see you, Walt Whitman, an American Rough, a cosmos! I see you face to face! I see you and the nameless faceless Faces in America’s ageless crowds of men and women who you saw in your mind’s eye. I see you crossing the river on your ferry. I see you walking […]
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Ostracan Heroes “the sky is still flushed in the face, the rains will not come soon” said the sweet-toothed seer who swam in sorrow and reeked of sins beyond the blood of the lamb so we sprinkled our sweats prodigally on our cotton-mouthed field whose crops waved naively to a flight of famished birds hovering, chirping and flapping their wings, […]
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