PEAR
The trick is
to be clear
so often,
then to show —
nothing in
this hand, and
nothing in
this one — a
confounding
innocence
just before
you disap-
Read more "TOM MONTAG – PEAR"PEAR
The trick is
to be clear
so often,
then to show —
nothing in
this hand, and
nothing in
this one — a
confounding
innocence
just before
you disap-
Read more "TOM MONTAG – PEAR"Thunderstorm Pavilion
From the thunderstorm pavilion
we watch rain brew over China
then cruise across the Pacific
and slop ashore at Carmel.
Crossing the continent in moments,
it arrives in time to endorse
explorations we’ve kept secret
from our many pear-shaped friends.
The thunder itself is a rumor
we’ve paid our agents to spread.
Writhing octoploid in the wash,
we absorb a million volts
to glow in places no one glows
unless assuming the leadership
of islands of fabulous wealth.
With your pale expensive thighs
you scissor off lengths of sky
to drape over the coffins
of those whose clothing wrinkled
in downpours we had to sponsor
for the sake of unborn children
whose inheritance is in doubt.
The glass of the pavilion fogs
to conceal our best maneuvers
as clouds the color of angels
enter and kneel to worship
not us but the distance between.
Read more "POETRY: WILLIAM DORESKI – THUNDERSTORM PAVILION"
Spiritual What you want to tell is your story, though you can’t hear it here where four wildroses have popped out despite the wind gusts that threaten to disperse their petals. They think it’s just fine to come to life again and feel wind and sun touch them in their particular corner behind cinderblocks, […]
Read more "POETRY: JOSEPH SOMOZA – SPIRITUAL"Wedding Cake
We eat the top of your wedding cake,
Stale sugar pieces cracking our teeth,
Promising each mouthful
To be the last,
Buttercream drooling from
Sticky fingers,
Pregnant with cream,
Pink pearls to be kissed.
Plump lips wait,
Shivering from loneliness.
We listen to the screaming downstairs
The plastic bride and groom
Sucked clean of sweetness.
Read more "POETRY: NATALIE CRICK – WEDDING CAKE"Guests
A lost dog and at his side
a lost friend are running day
and night across blue rivers’
bridges, down red roads not
clay but pavement, from state
to state each a map’s different
color. No time for rest or sleep,
to eat, only random wild root
or berry, quick short drink from
a cold spring. Each hour I hear
them growing closer, closer,
expect at any second one kind
paw scratch at my screen door,
the whisper of patient knocking,
muted, shy, polite but unafraid
no one will answer after their
long journey as I rise to greet
my two guests, the strangers
I’ve waited all my life to meet.
Read more "POETRY: NELS HANSON – GUESTS"