Carousel of Marriage Harry and Grace had a carousel of marriage while it lasted. There were arguments galore and children by the score or so the neighbors thought as they counted kids running across their lawns causing divots to fly and dogs to bark, a canine tabernacle choir. Fireworks on the Fourth were peaceful in comparison. The kids would light their crackers in the yard while Harry and […]
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Heartless at the Checkout Line “I’d never take my anger out on you,” she said, when I remarked she looked so piqued I had the inclination to skidoo. As someone who desired her, I freaked out at the dewdrops missing from her ears, the stern configuration of her lips, her strident voice and mortifying leers. Since these impediments did not […]
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I. As suspicious of the morning as I am thankful for the night, I no longer follow bird flight, the sinking of the violated sun. Mouthing a dialect of short checks and charity wards, I stare at a wasting life, unhappy, aging, unhealthy. Sympathies have been trained out of me. The elegance in a sniper’s logic is what remains. […]
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Plain Girl Pretty Rose was a plain girl from a small town. She sang in the choir, never missed Bible study, left for the big city after high school. She worked nights in a shanty diner next to a bar where working men gathered. Depending on how much the men had to drink Rose looked appealing but she ignored […]
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MURDER INK It was that innocent and silent night, when all souls were hibernating and the cockerels were roosting, that the ambience was polluted. A thousand unthankfullness to the wordsmith, for waking up his lethal injection from its long coma. Then starring it as the major actor in the stage of the imminent massacre. He bled intermittent ink via vein […]
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Everybody Don’t Have Somebody The man in the ER, sutured and bandaged, told the nurse there wasn’t anyone she could call to give him a lift home. He said he’d take a bus once he had a chance to check his wallet and see if he had any money. He didn’t have much to begin with, he said, and the […]
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My Poor Mother’s Country Land by, Melissa R. Mendelson Green earth sways and rolls. This is my mother’s home, But mother, please forgive me. They don’t know the wrong they’ve done. Blue skies have fallen. The gray clouds have come, And here comes the thunder, Rolling in, Screaming at all they’ve done. Chorus: What have they done? […]
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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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Whenever I Hear A Train Whenever I hear a train, I want to run. I always wanted to run. Since I was a child, I would stand before the open door, but then the door would slam shut. I never knew where it was that I was supposed to go, and instead of running free, I caught the wrong […]
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Restless in holidays Trace of white frost on green grass, red ribbons on the fences, menorahs on the lawns, red, green, and silver lights on pine trees manmade icicles on front eaves It is that time of the year again. Boxed ornaments welcome their short-lived freedom while hang on branches of indoor pines. Decorated shop-fronts invite window-shoppers […]
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