A Nuclear Childhood What if your parents had never met had never married had never yelled at each other and instead had wed someone they loved and lived peacefully all those years. That would have been their Eden but you shaking there now decades later wouldn’t be with us cursing the tremors of a […]
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ON PORPOISE Am I watching the dolphins Or are they watching me, Somersaulting on backfins, While I swim clumsily? At the junction of our worlds Where the land meets the sea, Somewhat shallow for their twirls, I can stand awkwardly. I’m not native to water; They’re not native to land. Still each other we ought to […]
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Once this bedroom door is closed the rug deals in flowers, its dark scent reaching up where your eyes expect sunlight and miles away the heady whiff from a firefly –already she’s naked the woman you just this minute inhaled, a deep breath who can’t see, has to feel along the grass though the dead still stake a […]
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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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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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WHAT LIES BENEATH At base of elevator shaft Lives planet I once knew (Preserved by technologic craft) On which earth’s surface grew. Beneath a roof of greenhouse glass Lies planet of my birth Supporting seven levels vast Of Hotel Planet Earth. Atop the seventh level like The Babylon of old Are gardens hanging lush and ripe […]
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FOR MEDICINAL USE ONLY When Medici once ruled the roost, To Renaissance they gave a boost In Florence, town of Tuscany, By prompting minds to wander free. To God no longer gave their vow, But Greeks and Romans lured them now. Upon their pedestals, the saints By art and science were replaced. Giovanni, patriarch began […]
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MY COUNTRY SIDE {Where old misty mountains adorn the sphere competing with the sky in height and glory and boisterous antelope’s race and hide behind the shrubs from *ogún’s intrusion} ~Akeredolu Tope My country side Where unruly old vultures scavenge on hot excrement Threatening even the carriers Of the meal, the happy children Pouring out yesterday’s fill My country […]
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NEVER TO WANDER Hell smoke has gone to rest And gradually I condense Like caged cloud in a fist of steel Bubbling in a helpless circumference The rope to winch is strained to shreds But in my sleeping wings Am sure to find Healing capsules for my nasopharyngitis Bang I cry Please heed the call Kindly enclose me in Else […]
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QUESTIONABLE CHOICE Gathered at the water hole Primates lacking hair. Cover selves from neck to toe Lest reveal what’s there. Feeding till they’re satisfied, Drinking till they’re full. Elders showing sagging hides From the planet’s pull. Try imagining these apes “Masters of the Earth,” Guzzling down fermented grapes, Adding to their girth. Evolution must have […]
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