On the tips of our fingers Is playing, the spring Hide and seek With colors! But beneath our feet No lush green grass, Only poisonous shrubs. From the mouth of desires Uttered rain drops pattering And, in our brains Bright red fire! With wings widely spread Dancing, black owl the angel of death The future though uncertain, […]
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The Silvering I AM LIVING WITHOUT MIRRORS WITHOUT THE VIEW OF RIGHT AND OF LEFT I KNOW NOT IF MY BEARD IS SHORN IF MY HAIR IS KEMPT IF MY COLLAR IS CLOSED I STEP DOWN FROM BATHROOM TO HALL AND SEE ONLY THE FRONT DOOR WHICH, ONCE OPENED, EXPRESSES THE FREE SUN AND WIND […]
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Overpass In the gravel hole slumbering in cold fatigue open and open is tomorrow never arriving. But pale and pasty sickness in my mirror is all I see when I look at my changing body, changing again to form a great wonder. Weak as a broken limb, my mind is empty of inspiration and I am drifting with this […]
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My friend, Edith Giles, is the mom of my childhood friend Tom. Tom is kind and loves sports and was my childhood protector against the likes of Michael Lombardi in grammar school. My brother Ed was another who looked out for me. Mrs. Giles would always say hello, how are you, and would read my writing, something always important […]
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In 1920 he came on a boat from Ireland and found his way through Ellis Island. He found a room in a boarding house catering to his kind and went looking for a job but found instead signs in windows saying “No Irish Need Apply.” A cemetery asked him to dig graves and lower the dead. In America today […]
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DO-OVER (Inspired while watching “United 93,” the one flight that was prevented by its heroic passengers from fulfilling its mission of murder on September 11, 2001) If you could go back To one time and place, Stop accursed attack On the human race, Could you simply choose (Knowing what you know) Holocaust of Jews? Nine-eleven’s blow? […]
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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 you were a baby being born, waking to a pain that was not yours, a motherhood I never had. It […]
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The Blood of Poets I should have left you lying in the mud, And maybe sacrificed all you had to say But my thought to act brought on me obligation To belay my mind the images of things inside, I dare not deny your trail: You steal hearts, make men cry Wolds are born upon your spine Bills […]
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THE ORIGIN OF THE LIE (By Joseph Cavera) I am the Great Liar For years, my words have spread Through every ear Surrounding every thought They have taken their place Among everyday speech No one the wiser They have taken root Growing out through every Branch, stem, and leaf Through all great oaks Rosy ambers and black pines […]
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Plain Girl Pretty Rose was a plain girl from a small town. She sang in the choir, never missed Bible study, left for the big city after high school. She worked nights in a shanty diner next to a bar where working men gathered. Depending on how much the men had to drink Rose looked appealing but she ignored […]
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