Hocus Pocus This [bread] is no other than Jesus’ flesh This [horse’s open mouth] is Vaisvanara This [word] has A magic power This [fish head] brings Courage & posterity This [fluid] cures All diseases This [sequence of syllables] drives away All evils & devils This [ritual] ensures Good weather & good harvest This [hat/hood] guarantees Purity, loyalty This [flag] […]
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TEN YEARS TRANSIENCE (By Joseph Cavera) after time the arms do rust mitigate intitial verve wrought nothingness and ill humored lust but if your contemplations lie next to cleanliness, where birds fly then they’ll serve to clarfiy but oh the jaws of life do close wither and wilt a shattered rose For all that lies ahead […]
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The Truth Is Out There On a cold, dark evening in a big city, A woman left a small box In front of a well lit house. She knocked on the door And when the porch light was lit, She left without that box she brought. The inside of the box Contained only two things. ********** On a warm, […]
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On Mixing Macarons and Vicodin That winter split me like firewood. I was smaller, splintered, Elliot Smith would play on cassette in my blue Volkswagen, while our breath coursed through flared nostrils and damaged lungs. * I hid my pain like a sick dog. I slinked out, under the back deck, I swallowed some pills. In those hideous places I […]
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BLACK RABBIT (By Joseph Cavera) I’m late! So late! For a very important date! I’ve got to go! Oh no, oh no! It’s not so simply the queen I fear! No, oh no! Oh dear, oh dear! Steps behind me I pray won’t find me! His carroty scythe will surely send All whose time is up, their flesh […]
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THE ENDLESS SKY (By Joseph Cavera) What could be more interesting than spending Christmas with a friend, What could make us happier than to enjoy it to the end? Walking along the snow in the day, Not knowing or caring if I tread unto the fray, For then I stop, and then I lie, Staring at the edge of […]
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Underwater Ballet In the wistful – drowning; All dreamers hold their breath; Floating balloon Rests full in blister world before the land. Slippery between skin and scales, Drawn throbbing from the gilled; Great tuna from crustaceans postulated, Anemones new-boned; Parallel concert writhe Curls double joints. Flippers of androgyny Erected supple Thighs hoisted angular Lungs ultra-blown; Last […]
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DON’T GO GENTLY – By Ray Gallucci Would you rather go Calmly like the snow, Or with memory Of a crushing sea? Ghosts seem seldom seen If they died serene. Most of manifests Come from violent deaths. Spectres who replay How they died that day Aren’t asleep in bed Or perceive they’re dead. Those were weren’t prepared […]
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Every summer they come, a ballet over the border, without papers, a mass migration of ruby-throat hummers, beautiful birds that devour millions of flies in North America, birds we welcome because we love their beauty and their ballet. We do everything to help them, hanging and cleaning feeders of nectar to plump them up so they can feast on flies until October when they have […]
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Antarctic Depths An ice-roofed stratosphere, clear liquid space And nerve-legged spiders Crack fans of anchor ice To mend all seals Here it is coddled by the final killer, Will it be toppled by comfort’s rays?
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