A Nuclear Childhood What if your parents had never met had never married had never yelled at each other and instead had wed someone they loved and lived peacefully all those years. That would have been their Eden but you shaking there now decades later wouldn’t be with us cursing the tremors of a […]
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I hardly Knew You We remember a lost President, assassinated, promises unfulfilled, who dazzled the nation with youthful vigor almost unAmerican glamour, and many reminisce of what could have been, forgetting the best and brightest sent abroad in the Peace Corps, instead of working at home to cure national ills, forgetting how close he came to incinerating the world, […]
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On the tips of our fingers Is playing, the spring Hide and seek With colors! But beneath our feet No lush green grass, Only poisonous shrubs. From the mouth of desires Uttered rain drops pattering And, in our brains Bright red fire! With wings widely spread Dancing, black owl the angel of death The future though uncertain, […]
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The Silvering I AM LIVING WITHOUT MIRRORS WITHOUT THE VIEW OF RIGHT AND OF LEFT I KNOW NOT IF MY BEARD IS SHORN IF MY HAIR IS KEMPT IF MY COLLAR IS CLOSED I STEP DOWN FROM BATHROOM TO HALL AND SEE ONLY THE FRONT DOOR WHICH, ONCE OPENED, EXPRESSES THE FREE SUN AND WIND […]
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Action Paint Stripper He did it: Bared around as a torn poster – Slashed in irrigation, blatant in life. Squeezing out worms, slugs And snakes ablaze; All burst to flood Then blended underlay – A laminated rainbow. His luminescence crossed exposure’s edge; Flesh writhed erogenous, Prime canvas scrubbed. Paint frames contorted To every edge and corner, […]
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A Made-Up Place I’d love to sit by the old stone wall I made up once and roll it away to find a stairwell behind, a journey into a deeper unknown mystery of my mind, returning to the core of who I was, my smallest form, so that I might learn something new for today.
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Elizabeth, Mother of my mother, her knotted knuckles cradled my scraped elbows, the heaviness of my childhood heart. Her beauty unrepeatable, blistering. She stands hunched over the sink, peeling potatoes, buttering bread, in the yellow light of the pre-war kitchen she is ageless. When I think of home, I think of her, kindness dripping from her embrace like honey. […]
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EVERGREEN TERRACE (By Joseph Cavera) What is this, this dance of life While we slide and step around pain of strife The music slowly plays To dj for all of us the measure of our days I love the way these chords echo throughout me I haven’t sensed a sight of such a nature since then, It can […]
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Remnants The once proud avenues of vaunted shops now are deserted. Only the ghosts of employees past haunt the cobwebbed stores, all that remains of the departed unable to get other jobs, abandoned by their masters, unable to adapt to changing circumstances, conditioned to servitude, unfit for opportunities limited to the few capable of functioning in the Information Age.
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Living Outside the Box – By Mankh The Empire likes to put people in boxes, from airy crib to nailed-tight casket and in-between in psychological boxes, wrapped identities with ornate bows but never bowing with humility, packages to be delivered, opened, liked, disliked, discarded, shelved for coffee table conversation starters scripted performances fearing surprises yet jack-in-the-box can provide pleasant giggles […]
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