BARBARIANS AT THE GATES Once Rome attained its pinnacle Remained on top of things. Though forces quite inimical Sought to destruction bring. Some conquered thought despicable Rome’s impositioning Of laws it deemed applicable When “Pax-Romana”-ing Four centuries continuous Spanned Romans’ reign as king Throughout the lands contiguous Mediterranean. Just like empires classical From whom […]
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Bob’s Terminal Bay Wracked by cancer, Bob Marley told his friend, “It’s not me, Camille.” No, it’s never me when self-determination’s at an end. For, navigating pain, you cannot see but knots ahead. And you’re preoccupied with hoisting sails against prevailing winds. Bravado in your weary crew has died. A glance into the water shows the fins of sharks […]
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“Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
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A flight separates the sea from the sky. Her glance caresses the stillness. The flowers scathed by hail become bluish. They do not die, yet. This life without him is like the plenitude seen with one eye. Her right convictions sculpt in sadness as in a block of marble a rocky embrace. The sun is crying. There is only […]
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MURDER INK It was that innocent and silent night, when all souls were hibernating and the cockerels were roosting, that the ambience was polluted. A thousand unthankfullness to the wordsmith, for waking up his lethal injection from its long coma. Then starring it as the major actor in the stage of the imminent massacre. He bled intermittent ink via vein […]
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TRICK OR TREAT? “Good Christians” warn that Halloween’s A festival of Satan, When nothing’s standing in between Your soul and its damnation. For centuries, they witches burned With little provocation. Eternal fire claimed they’d earned. For mercy — strangulation! The Inquisition paid you well For friend’s denunciation, Provided friend was rich as hell For Church’s confiscation. […]
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Sending My Love Across The Distance Our childhood was shared with laughter and tears. Two grown women talking over coffee warmed up my mind whenever I thought ahead, but where has that future gone now? We never saw that distance grow between us, and now there lies the bridge built between where I stand and where you are. Our […]
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HERE (By Melissa R. Mendelson) There is no other place that I would ever consider home but here, and here is a world far from perfect. We are still divided. Our emotions rage on from issues in our life and issues here that affect us. We still struggle to stand. My heart cannot bear to hold the news because […]
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The Fiction of Art Captive on canvas, a gray-haired man stands, palms outstretched, shoulders in deep shrug, pleading with a woman bone-thin with rage who aims an arthritic finger at him. An orange cat cowers under a corner table. How long has she been mad at him, this man who plays husband — minutes, decades? The couple […]
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when they are gone, mourn them as you knew them soluble as the elements they were- water soil fire air. sat at the bar in smoke whiskey pint- slow craic drifting in out of banter in stories someone’s laughter turning to songs. her and him dirt in their fingernails voices in mist memories mounted in dry stone walls left […]
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