Tequila (V5) By Michael Lee Johnson Single life is Tequila with a slice of lime, Shots offered my traveling strangers. Play them all deal them jacks, some diamonds then spades, hold back aces play hardball, mock the jokers. Paraplegic aging tumblers toss rocks, Their dice go for the one-night stand. Poltergeist fluid define another frame. Female dancers in the […]
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FRANKFURT PIG (By Joseph Cavera) There once was a pig from Frankfurt, Who found he had grime on his shirt, He believed neither eye As he sullied a silk tie After spending a day, or two, in the dirt Now our dear friend had a quandry “How could such pure muck come upon me?” I can’t go wrong […]
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THE MAN WHO ATE HIS BOOTS I remember now. Air so still you could hear it breathing through the frozen shrouds, the crack of floes caressing hulls as if ships could talk to each other. Men slept fully clothed, smoked, drank tea, cooked, read books from the library, and pretended that this was all normal. On holidays […]
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when they are gone, mourn them as you knew them soluble as the elements they were- water soil fire air. sat at the bar in smoke whiskey pint- slow craic drifting in out of banter in stories someone’s laughter turning to songs. her and him dirt in their fingernails voices in mist memories mounted in dry stone walls left […]
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Missing Feeding of the Birds (V3) By Michael Lee Johnson Keeping my daily journal diary short these sweet bird sounds lost- reviews January through March. Joy a dig deep snow on top of my sorrows. Skinny naked bones sparrows these doves beneath my balcony window, lie lifeless without tweet no melody lost their sounds. These few survivors huddle […]
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WAR SPECULATION (By Joseph Cavera) “its so scary…..when all the bullets have been fired, and all the men of one side are eternally dismissed…..the world about them lies in mess of shrapnel and waste- shattered, and in flames”
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VERDANCE FROM BLACK (By Joseph Cavera) To you I ride a weathered train Puffing obsidian clouds, crossing this bridge Your presence awaits me beyond this ridge Alas, from lilac loving I must abstain My presence approaching is raised a smidge And a true train this bridge may lack, But my love you see blooms like fresh lilac Like […]
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What We Notice – By Gil Hoy I first lived like a tadpole swimming up-current in a raging river Not noticing that I’d been crowned heavyweight champion of the world, the impossible odds overcome, or the miraculous union with my waiting cell that might otherwise have been washed away and lost. The lesson is that you have already overcome […]
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27TH HIGH WAY tonight, cobblestones have eaten into the earth, the potholes are gone; tender voids, noxious like hollows of black holes. the congestion twirls & begins to evaporate like smoke. automobiles compete with winds. & the beggar who sits with a dog, sniffing goodwill & coins. looks on, wishing the road remained shapeless, tainted with contours, like the […]
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Accidents Will Happen A man walks down the street ears covered with hi-tech headphones playing music from his IPOD, carefully recorded for his listening pleasure, and doesn’t hear the warning sound of a building falling on him. A woman walks down the street eyes intent on her smartphone’s keyboard texting her friend with urgent fingers, describing her latest […]
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