within those man stone walls promoting their god bringing us to him i told the priest- you tell us to be content with poverty while you live in this big house throwing us scraps begged from money lenders. this is not what Jesus asked his disciples to do. this is not what he died for. he said live amongst […]
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In the turn from wide to narrow streets seams in the street shudder my tires, loosed leaves flutter through the fog. Police on patrol secure the corner the five-columned church commands. Blocked by brush-wide blurs of contrails, the sun settles behind the storm. There’s a death in my house, a dearth of charity, a chastened child unwrapping his […]
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The Song of Songs FEAR FEAR FOR THE CHILDREN FIND FLIGHT FOR THEM ALL AND OTHERS AND SWEEP FOR SOLOMON AND HIS ANCESTORS AND FIGHT FOR HIS DAUGHTERS AND SONS. THOSE WHO THINK OF LOVE AND REDEMPTION THOSE WHO SPEAK OF HEARTS AND WOE THOSE WHO THRIVE FROM SCATTERING PETALS THOSE WHO SHINE WITH GUTTURAL GRIEF. SO […]
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NG NG21028982 – My National Guard Service Number 1967 I remember from an early age that when she wasn’t cursing, my mother chose NG – the car was NG, NG the refrigerator, my father, and me. And so in ’67, when fear and guilt masqueraded as angry conscience, and I managed to finagle my way out of the […]
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Why Won’t You Smile For Me I took a snapshot at a place I hardly knew of someone I almost grew close too. Though it was night, the stars gave me plenty of light. I saw two women dressed in white, with angelic wings, holding up his cross. He was placed in a setting where a broken fountain […]
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Shatter Now, you have done it. Glass all over the floor. A space where it was. What were you looking for? Give me a better answer than that lie. You know who you are, so don’t cry. What about society and those who stand away? In that mirror, your true self will stay, despite living a lie, crying yourself to […]
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ALAS – By Elaine Nadal I was told I have her eyes, her thick brows– didn’t think much of it: We all have something of someone. My sister has Aunt Natalia’s smile. My brother has Uncle Silo’s curly hair (back in the day when my uncle had hair). I was just glad I didn’t inherit Aunt Rosa’s squared shape. […]
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Every once in awhile over the last 40 years Ralph wondered what might have happened to the guy who had moved in with the mother of his children and drank all the time. He remembered the kids saying when they were small the fellow got up one night to go to the bathroom and got lost in the hallway went back to […]
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You pick away at the Earth as if your grave was filled with the wait for flowers :one foot already pleased, the other still wrapped in dirt weighed down stone by stone the way fruit is ripened keyed up and seaworthy, is lowered into a wooden box that never leaves shore just the loading and unloading […]
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THE GHOSTS OF TIME The moon so ghostly naked in space, A very inhospitable place, Long thought devoid forever of life Was once the post for some other race. Beneath its surface split as by knife, In hollowed chamber built with great strife, Entombed for countless ages were found Machines and gadgets ever so rife. Exploring […]
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