Poetry

Poem By SIMON PERCHIK * So you let the water boil as if you were not yet born and already breathing it can barely make out the bubbles burdened by sunlight the way some ancient sea struggles inside, hangs on ...

HERO OR ZERO? To die on the battlefield leading a charge, Your body upon a shield, burned in a barge – An image heroic of Viking portrayal Approvingly stoic, quite worthy of hail. The fireman rushing pall-mall into blaze As ...

Sylvia’s Son I was wrapped in a towel like a bad dream, wet feet on linoleum. I was too preoccupied to see the cracked blood, to hear the silence until I was knee- deep in your tomb. Sometimes, I dreamt ...

Early Morning, Tucson Foothills Shadows jag over rock and cactus playing tag with the rising sun, nature’s Rorschach asking me what these immense ink blots mean. This one’s the boogeyman scaring/scarring my daughter, that one’s a tarp smothering moist green ...

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’ ...

You climb and these steps spread out in those rings trees still carry under their wings --you collect height and at night two at a time though the steps are chipped the inscriptions worn away staring off to the side ...

Sponging Up Succor I’m suffering through vinegary days, as if I’m Jesus at His Calvary. Arrested from my customary ways by modern versions of its harsh decree, I bend beneath the burden of my cross. Recalling laurels in Jerusalem, I’m ...

House for Sale in Shady Acres The question isn’t why your little world is suddenly going to hell. The question is what  can you do about the black couple   touring the house on your block where the sign just went up day before yesterday ...

Rocky Mountainscaping At the same height of Every rocky mountain Above all seasonal change A snowline is widely & cursively cut As if to bite a whole patch of Sky from heaven With rows of rows of Whale-like teeth ...

Daily Paper on the Lawn   An hour before dawn the paper is out on the lawn white in the moonlight a trumpet dozing after a long night in a jazz bar tired from playing but willing to play a last set for me not knowing ...