Noblesse Oblige – By Frank De Canio It isn’t strange that some sweet girl who’s charmed a male combatant in the sexes’ war should, seeing that her former foe’s disarmed by awe, forgo hostilities she swore. For, after all, a man thus smitten cedes his prowess to exigencies of love. His heart is focused on romantic deeds and gallantry instead […]
Read more
Heartless at the Checkout Line “I’d never take my anger out on you,” she said, when I remarked she looked so piqued I had the inclination to skidoo. As someone who desired her, I freaked out at the dewdrops missing from her ears, the stern configuration of her lips, her strident voice and mortifying leers. Since these impediments did not […]
Read more
A tragedy happened to Willie and Millie after years of marriage. All their kids were doing well and had nice families of their own but tragedy struck one dawn before Willie had had his morning coffee. Millie was on her third cup and Willie said Millie looked at him the wrong way and Willie asked, “What’s that look all about, Millie, what did I do now?” […]
Read more
Shattered ambitions litter the roadside of expectations, ignored by parents, neglected by school, yet filled with all the yearning that are youth made vulnerable, so when a kind man paid attention, told of the blessings of Allah, the kinship of true believers, it was an easy task to reveal the afterlife, the promise of fulfillment for servants of Islam […]
Read more
Impact Christmas time and stores are selling, selling, shoppers are buying, buying in desperate stampedes to get there first, get what they desire at any cost, regardless of effects on the deprived.
Read more
Ostracan Heroes “the sky is still flushed in the face, the rains will not come soon” said the sweet-toothed seer who swam in sorrow and reeked of sins beyond the blood of the lamb so we sprinkled our sweats prodigally on our cotton-mouthed field whose crops waved naively to a flight of famished birds hovering, chirping and flapping their wings, […]
Read more
you didn’t give a f**k for anything’ except love’ and art. it was the precipice that kept it sane’ kept it afloat even as you slid further and further away in real life and newly rediscovered sanctimony. even as we lay side by side and the workers could glimpse us as they worked the neighboring flat. It sits […]
Read more
Tangled Drawing the cross slices tramline nuggets, Sizing out torture’s cavity, Wrenching the hopeful – slashes, threads all. The anchor is split, tossed on a shroud, The elements burgeoning right. The chain is rusted, marking starfish, Shakes in a ticking melody. Calipers rented, mayhem dented, Cholesterol’s bulb fouls the maggots away; All pupae are gelled, numb triplets they […]
Read more
Most Recent I’m making sure all is still alive. Checking the pulse of the homepage. Routinely observing to see if the rise and fall of ideas is still in sway. I make the most of this room, circle the table, tell my little jokes, and hope that what I’m saying reaches out like a tree limb tapping or even […]
Read more
Insignificance Late in life I struggle against my insignificance When I should enjoy the freedom from performance before an audience. Applause is happiness but if they withhold applause, embarrassment. When Da Liu put me to work crunching hexagrams and spreadsheet numerology Instead of ghost writing his books about T’ai Chi for longevity I was humiliated but freed. No need to […]
Read more