WINTER, A LOVE STORY (By John Biscello) Winter’s brides, wearing long white scarves of sleet and song, touching pale sky to blue lips, breathing memory and frost; their sorrow and spectral want grows hands that enclose me, a robust crush, matrimonial in its grip, until I am no more than a whiff of air, and then, not even that, […]
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THINGS THAT GO “BUMP” IN THE NIGHT The comet was heading for Earth To impact directly on Perth: “Unless we avoid This death planetoid, Our lives aren’t a plugged nickel worth.” Too large to deflect it astray If even they nuked it each day: “Alas all is lost, Our hopes away tossed. We’ve nothing to do […]
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Manhattan Landlord I ran a swell restaurant for many years on a good block in Manhattan. I wasn’t rich, but made a good living, paid my workers well so they were happy and passed it on to customers. Then my lease ran out. The landlord raised the rent, three hundred percent. There was no way I could […]
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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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The Silver Store The store with an appearance viewed as “full of dust” is brushed aside by the sign that says “Free of Rust.” Its products have been free of scratches and fingerprint smudges, which the lines of ants haven’t made. They are clean enough to act as mirrors and containers for the sun’s heat. These […]
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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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‘Misery Of Living’ On a first name basis at my hometown pharmacy Solace is an orange bottle that says I still have five refills remaining The same faceless people accompany me on the trolley I’ve witnessed the benefits of Christianity at the light of life but God is still a stranger All alone amongst the crowd people carry on like […]
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Careless Consumption The tide slowly ebbs from Florida shores so tourists walk the beaches without getting wet, never wondering why there are no more seashells. The ocean looks the same to them, not realizing the muddy water was once clear blue, completely untainted. The fishes are departing scooped up in massive nets that do not recognize the need to feed […]
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ROARING SUN (By Joseph Cavera) Endless are the days that begin again my tredging and dredging across the plains within planes through the tall grass and beyond green scenes and misty screens front the path to the distant shores Held within are the Tides so free which confide to me the planet’s raring flow while blacker waves make incredible […]
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Aurora Australis The stars spun in a flashing cloud purple and blue—pulsating and out of the middle of the swirl shone a black ray, seeming to fold in on itself, expanding simultaneously ser lat allar etoy eelh ottop alalalala ashalla shalla shallalalala ser atalate piercing my ears in its grasp crashing heavenly lightning upon my head.
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