You pick away at the Earth as if your grave was filled with the wait for flowers :one foot already pleased, the other still wrapped in dirt weighed down stone by stone the way fruit is ripened keyed up and seaworthy, is lowered into a wooden box that never leaves shore just the loading and unloading […]
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Remembering His Third Wife Never speak ill of the dead, his father always said, and his father was a pastor who preached from the pulpit. That’s why whenever he thinks of his third wife, and he does almost daily, he never says anything bad. Instead, he sends himself an email and records for history yet another evil deed she managed to […]
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FOOTPRINTS Brian T. Marshall I spotted them on my third day there. A question mark in the sand. First off a little background. I was never supposed to be there alone, walking on that beach. But Karen had decided, two weeks shy of departure, that we weren’t a couple anymore. And no, I don’t want your sympathy, it […]
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There are many other possibilites. The busy homeworker sees more washing up to do. The cat sees something to knock over. The lovers see something to share. The conspiracy theorist sees that the water was drugged, and the glass had a gun and was on the grassy knoll. The racist believes that the glass will be stolen by immigrants. […]
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A Stationary Bicycle The doctor tells Phil and his wife he’s in pretty good health for a man his age but he needs to exercise. And Phil says he agrees and then goes on to explain his faith in recliner therapy. He sits in a recliner for hours, watches TV or reads the paper and wiggles his toes at least three […]
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Hocus Pocus This [bread] is no other than Jesus’ flesh This [horse’s open mouth] is Vaisvanara This [word] has A magic power This [fish head] brings Courage & posterity This [fluid] cures All diseases This [sequence of syllables] drives away All evils & devils This [ritual] ensures Good weather & good harvest This [hat/hood] guarantees Purity, loyalty This [flag] […]
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Without a ripple this jetty full steam and though whales will clear their throat the gull can’t hear it’s next struts on bedrock that already twice a day surfaces spits out the cooling skim from molten iron and salt –you dive into these rocks for more light, more lift and your feathers struggling with that first shriek that […]
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PHANTOM-CIZING (A poetic tribute to the original story by Gaston Leroux, prompted by seeing Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Phantom of the Opera) His name is Erik, Though few who know This name by which Opera Phantom goes. Not burned by acid Or scorched by flame, His face cadaverous Born in shame. For years he traveled, A circus freak […]
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Mud Intimate I plunge my fingers in mud and sculpt a twig spine, line of dirt deep massage for all the hurt sluiced through river banks and muck. I tickle the cherry tree root so its limbs can feel a hand’s warmth, a glow that stimulates stone fruit. In that line I poke a stone, rounded rock of muddied […]
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Building Walls Someone there is who loves a wall, Piling stones on top of stones, To keep invading wetbacks out, To keep glass pearls secure. He lets our Southern neighbors know, In blaring braggadocio, That they must pay to build his wall, To keep it working as they go. “But the world has far too […]
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