THE GROVE by Tina Klimas
A MALLARD AND THE RED SHOES
I glide through a velvet watermirage of swirling autumnalcolor. In the water, trees bleedand shimmer. I glide throughtrees, and trees are water and wateris sky. I am mallard. I...
TO PAINT A CLOUD by Russell Dupont
TO PAINT A CLOUD
To paint a cloud,apply colors, etherealand pure. Translucentlike white powdermisted onto silk.
Wield your brushinto the heavensso your cloudsheave, like an ocean’sgreat waves
or stampeding horsessoaring into the sky,a gambol of dragons,swirling bearers...
THE YELLING MAN by V. A. Rivera
The Yelling Man
The man screeches at the bird watcher he nearlyruns over, screams at his ice cream meltingin the heat, shouts at his noisy twins just being kids.He once had a wife. But he...
ROGUE RIVER REDEMPTION by Clint Frakes
Desire #31(a meditation on a condition)
The crazy lady tries to get intimate with meevery Wednesday & Friday. I say,“Listen, lady, you should ask before going through someone’s bag—& hey that’s my fucking magazine!”She leaves,...
FOUR HAIKUS by Jeffrey Tao
Four Haikus
Music
Music feeds the soulTouches our deepest recessesLove and cherish it.
Rippling Lake
Gently rippling lakeBathed in soft autumn sunlight.Leaves in myriad shapes.
The Starling
As I sip coffeeA starling settles nearbyPlumage speckled white.
Lilac Leaves
Green leaves turn yellowPerfectly...
JACOB AND THE ANGEL by Ingrid Blaufarb Hughes
We Are All Complicit
In Mariupol, a man searchesall night in the rubble of his house.“Four children, four adults,” he says,as day breaks. He starts to dig their graves.
On a New York street a man...
THOSE TWO by Odeta Xheka
Half of New Territory
The rain’s let upas the last few drops of milk and tears snake downthe cereal bowl, on the breakfast table,covered in silence and soaked in honey-we go about deaf and blind,...
BEYOND GRANNY’S GARDEN by David Matthews
Modest Triumph
At the dour end of a dismal dayin a run of such daysthat compose an agewhere I find myself no longer young,somehow I come almost alivewith evening, PBS NewsHour,a modest dinner, and after...