BLACK MADONNA Altoetting, Germany Robert Trabold Dark chapel pierced by candle light. Silver – gold glittering! Stately candles on the alter add solemnity. Many yellow roses blend with gold – silver. In the middle, small dark statue – woman with a child dressed in black – gold holding a golden rose. Silence reigns in the chapel. Many people […]
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The Path of Art II In primitive times unknown individuals painted on cave walls not for interior decoration, but artistic expression, that would unlike today, with no gallery opening for an elite crowd, perhaps just the clan, yet if they saw the strange images might have burned, stoned, banished the strange one, rather than give a scathing review in […]
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I Traded Ethel for Tiffany I know very little about computers but I use one for basic needs. Poems, stories, not much more. Like some nice women I’ve known, I’ve discovered computers have a mind of their own. They do what they want and expect me to understand. The problem is I never do. I babble in amazement. And like the […]
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Remembering His Third Wife Never speak ill of the dead, his father always said, and his father was a pastor who preached from the pulpit. That’s why whenever he thinks of his third wife, and he does almost daily, he never says anything bad. Instead, he sends himself an email and records for history yet another evil deed she managed to […]
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Open Eyes Laid Back By Michael Lee Johnson Open eyes, black-eyed peas, laid back busy lives, consuming our hours, handheld devices grocery store “which can Jolly Green Giant peas, alternatives, darling, to bring home tonight- these aisles of decisions.” Mind gap: “Before long apps will be wiping our butts and we, others, our children will not notice.” No worries, […]
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EVE (By Joseph Cavera) it was christmas eve, and all through the streets, wind echoes without grace, telling me to leave ..for a better place. yet I arose to see a snowy sight, crystals rose up in the sky shining down refracted light such beauty, a frozen cry left behind by the Man up there and still is […]
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Homer’s never owned a gun, thinks they should be banned along with bombs and missiles. Doesn’t need them in the river that flows between his mind and his emotions where every now and then he pushes someone in for some untoward remark. He points to the sky first, says that’s where heaven is and gives a push […]
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VEXED OF KIN You pick your friends, but not your kin. Once stork descends with you, you’re in Whatever group that Fate selects, Who’ll mold you to what they expect. To some degree, your genes decide What you will be, who you’re inside. But those you’re with through early years Upon your pith their likeness sear. […]
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The Waking Nightmare IN THE WAKE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS I RISE AND BLINK HAVE I BEEN LAUGHING HAVE I BEEN CRYING HAVE I BEEN AFRAID OR EXALTED HAVE I SEEN MY UNCONSCIOUS HAVE I BEEN TO OTHER WORLDS HAVE I SEEN THE OTHER OR IS IT ALL BUT A DREAM WHERE I WEPT AND RAN AND […]
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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 […]
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