The Bald Eagle One must have a mind of America To regard the sharp beak and black Eye of the solitary bird of prey; And have listened a long time to Behold the silence of the Liberty Bell, The dusty flag rough in the distant Glitter of America’s spacious skies; And not to think of any misery In […]
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Crystal Blue The rain pounded the pavement as if it were furious over the lonely hearts that hid in their rooms with nobody to wipe away their tears or make them smile, but the rain did share their pain and splattered kisses upon windows of their homes to console them because the rain could see the love they hid […]
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With her name in your mouth more than a word, a morning and everywhere on Earth at the same time, in daylight though once every year you eat an apple in silence as if a whisper could pull the stars down closer and closer to one another and from your mouth a second sun that has […]
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Why Are the Dead So Still – By Fern G. Z. Carr Arms crossed, lying motionless in an open casket, he gazes upward through closed eyelids. Maybe if I look hard enough I’ll see him flinch or wriggle his nose at the acrid smell of incense rising from the censer; holy water is sprinkled on his body – it […]
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AFTER THE FACT The mystery of history Reduces all to sophistry If fecklessly, not skeptically, Accept we its validity. Did Kennedy form strategy Preventing Cuban tragedy When quarantined Fidel at sea? Or was it serendipity? Did atom bomb need dropping on To-be-defeated-soon Nippon, Because Japan, to its last man, Would fight invasion hand-to-hand? Was Civil […]
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Finding a Traveling Partner Two suitcases with wheels, packed with clothes needed for a week, rolled through the driveway, enter my RV class B. Before the key starts the ignition, I make sure to not forget my travelling accessories. In the passenger seat, my bobble head figurine shakes its head in agreement that I have a picture of […]
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Pray, tell! Who plunged this abominable steel Into the great Iroko? There where lesser trees flanked The surviving relic of the realm. Who shot the gilded eagle Before it had executed the gods’ task But like Marathon Never relished the reward Save for Nirvana’s nicest niche. Who hurled bombs To this ancient market Where the gods send sale-spirits: […]
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Poem By SIMON PERCHIK * She wraps your limp the way the sun marks out its darkness and along the ground pours a small circle –you’ll make it back she says, writes on a pad kept open how seabirds will call each other over and over force their feathers though your shadow too has taken on that phase […]
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Salt and Pepper White privilege it’s called and recently I learned its name although I’ve been white as a sheet for decades. Like breathing and eating I take white privilege for granted. I push a cart through a megastore in bib overalls and no one follows me and when I hail a cab in a snow storm, it picks me up. My freckles may be a stop sign. Not so […]
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ON BEING SAFE His mantra starts out, “Warm, clean, comfortable.” He’s had his share of troubles — health, work, relationships. He’s never been consoled to hear, “Others have it so much worse.” Why would that make him feel better? How many people go hungry, combing dumpsters for food, or sleep in cardboard boxes in freezing weather? Others […]
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