Carnival That peacock opulence, Swarming on strutting grime; That massed ecstasy, squeezing itself, Short-breathed, near suffocation; That sound-abandonment, seeming to plunge To deafness’s peace; Yet keeping those maimed faculties alive, Ever denying their last fulfilment. Maybe it’s only I and it, I, starting in the middle And it, commensurate with my idea Of my own size? Maybe I […]
Read more
Alchemist Sing, earth-captured starlight Purest light to touch the earth Purest light to flow through day and night To flood our sense-zone; Sing through my blinking tubes and phials, All potions, never poured; Yet all suffused in afterthought. My litmus-jewels, made one by burning faces, turning suns, That charred the fixed eye, the rooted touch. Bodies I gel, not cruelly […]
Read more
PATIENT NANA (By Joseph Cavera) Some old woman, Who says so? Watches over mom Stops from going below And her husband, a peaceful man Retirement clearly not in the plan, Cute little attitude, We all know, and love Brings us hope, Thank the man up above… For our patient Nana, Cook and Mother, Who else look us to? I […]
Read more
Life Science If only I was older, wiser than gapped tooth, golden haired twenty-two, I wouldn’t have wondered, what whiskered man is this? His hair like a peppered moth, he sat stubbing cigarette butts into the ancient ruins of the bar ash tray. There was a familiarity in the corner creases of his brown eyes. I could smell the paste […]
Read more
Song of America I. I see you, Walt Whitman, an American Rough, a cosmos! I see you face to face! I see you and the nameless faceless Faces in America’s ageless crowds of men and women who you saw in your mind’s eye. I see you crossing the river on your ferry. I see you walking […]
Read more
AFTER PARTY (By John Biscello) She, Lazarus, back from the dead, with a musical vengeance— A beat, Christ, please, she asks of her martyred D.J., half-light, half-man, and out climbs her voice, grinding through rubble, a dark velvet toy wound up for centuries, released, on behalf of every last blue girl, unannounced, notes from underground unfurling a cortege of […]
Read more
WHAT LIES BENEATH At base of elevator shaft Lives planet I once knew (Preserved by technologic craft) On which earth’s surface grew. Beneath a roof of greenhouse glass Lies planet of my birth Supporting seven levels vast Of Hotel Planet Earth. Atop the seventh level like The Babylon of old Are gardens hanging lush and ripe […]
Read more
CLICHÉD Beggars can’t be choosers, For there is no choice for losers, And as paupers we must stand with open hand. Seeing is believing, But can also be deceiving When you’re grieving that you’re down and out again. Cruising for a bruising, If you’re thin-skinned, makes excusing Your intrusions not so simple of a chore. Striking while […]
Read more
THE MULTIPLEX – By John Zedolik Walking on the left side is walking on the same street but it’s the other of the one if the right has been the only I have used in my journeys up the hill and back home in falling leaves or following cold. And yet another arises when walking in the middle […]
Read more
Victor’s Deli has tables to enjoy your breakfast or lunch. There is always a line for the scrumptious food. Victor’s wife owns the business and keeps the name even though they are divorced. For a while a delivery man used to bring her flowers after the breakup. Caroline plays her harmonica there and Louis like to sing Broadway tunes. […]
Read more