VERDANCE FROM BLACK (By Joseph Cavera) To you I ride a weathered train Puffing obsidian clouds, crossing this bridge Your presence awaits me beyond this ridge Alas, from lilac loving I must abstain My presence approaching is raised a smidge And a true train this bridge may lack, But my love you see blooms like fresh lilac Like […]
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Shatter Now, you have done it. Glass all over the floor. A space where it was. What were you looking for? Give me a better answer than that lie. You know who you are, so don’t cry. What about society and those who stand away? In that mirror, your true self will stay, despite living a lie, crying yourself to […]
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Opinion The majority writes the opinion. When the box scores are posted the team is found to have won despite an unacceptable number of errors. There are, however, no disqualifications.
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Respitoration Can there still be irrigation Now the stem’s closed, dry? Can there still be imagination – When the bottom’s gone awry – When everyone can see Through every ancient icon? In spite of everything, maybe – When light floods all opacity, As every block of granite, Basalt, obsidian Melts into a stained-glass window; When experience […]
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In Transit Unemployed’s tube journey: For those safe, definable few minutes there is the duality Of oneself and the comfort of the seat – the circle; Seal; it chops perfectly, crossing the antilinear. It induces connexity; the most complete awareness of the toil and monotony which went into making the tube, and the seat inside the train inside […]
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In Good Company Hurt for the first time again, they swear to live, seeking protection in the indelible mirror; yet they stare in hope of freezing the image they hope all will see. Broken anew, birthing twins to the old scars, finding a smile in a figure of fragile wax, they must, and know to stay away from […]
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ANCESTOR WORSHIP The Gothic doors beckon me in. I enter. The nave is dim Though from the vaults the lights suspend And through the glass the colors blend. I forward step into the past Where medieval shadows cast. Distracted. What’s that I hear? The chant of monks praying near? Where columns rise, the open sky Appears […]
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Sarah makes sandwiches all day, piling meat and trimmings high on pillowy bread she spreads apart before her customers’ eyes. Hardworking men love her sandwiches and sometimes date her after work but none so far has mentioned marriage. This confuses Sarah who’s as open as her bread in satisfying men. That’s not too wise, says Ethel, a granny clone Sarah chats with after lunch-hour […]
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“You swirl and take the strait past You swing those hips of yours Your eyes they hardly break a glimpse As you kiss with all you’ve got. You turn around to go one away Your hands they’re still on mine Your eyes look away with that glazed holdout Your hands are still on mine. You tell me never […]
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When I pile up cut tomatoes, red onion, and radishes on top of romaine lettuce, I think of the hands that picked, cleaned, packed, and loaded them on trucks, carried them to cold rooms arranged them on shelves. As I remember stories of my father, a new comer a child-laborer in another era in another country, I say a […]
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