Category: # Issue 40

Maybe There’s a Way to Live Forever according to some physicistsinfinite versions of me roamacross infinite universes bundles of subatomic particlesfull of probabilityand uncertainty and all possiblefuturesare real and each time I choosebetween burritos and kaleboth options play out because Goddoes, indeed,play dice with the universe and when I’m reposingin a sepulcherin full decay infinite […]

Arbor of Wisteria and Clematis I reflect upon lavender Wisteria;lilacs and lonely white gardenias.I uncover a grand butterfly bush;Quoth the Nepeta, ‘keep to the path’.Those shrubby pussy willows bloom,burning felt deep within the Clematis.What could be more purely aglow?Pumpkins sit by bundled corn husks.Only this and a Thimble-berry pie.A perched crow is upon the arborcraving […]

Poem Repairs The scaffolding around the house never comes down. Permanent fixture. Part of the furniture. Apparently there’s no end to repairs. Last year’s leak over the stairs moved to the ceiling above the dining room, leaving decco-goth stripes running down the walls. Shingles above the front door were no sooner replaced when the awning […]

I’m a Riverboat Boy,Poem on Halsted Street (V2) As sure as church bellsSunday morning, ringingon Halsted and State Street, Chicago,these memories willbe soon forgotten.I stumble in my life with these words like broken sentences.I hear and denounce myself in the distance,mumbling chatter off my lips.Fragments and chips.Swearing at the parts of me I can’t see;walking […]

Colleagues and acquaintances don’t ask how I am; they ask for my Twitter handle. They tweet pictures of favorite ventis and retweet social justice tweets. They also ask for likes. But they don’t ask about my dreams. For the record, I want a beer night with colleagues. A smaller apartment. Larger spaces amplify aloneness. I […]

No Postage Required “Bottles from the Titanic survived at sea for over a century.” You think it would be easyto compose a message for a bottle,but there are so many considerations,maybe more than actual destinations. First, a decision regarding paper:Parchment, college ruled,the back of a used envelope,like one that enveloped love,like a letter, or an […]

A Child Reading Through a window to which the frost still clings,he looked upon a stormy winter scene,and soon appeared a little girl and spring. So still, so quiet, over a book she leaned,and though the sky was dark, the fields gray-white,the peach of her unblemished face, the green buds and pink roses on her […]

Dainty My finicky ways have left indelible markson most of those who have befriended me.My bars of soap face early demise,my skin eroded with so much lathering.My sedulous care in observing what looksI daily wear to the public,my meticulous attire,my conspicuous assortmenthave won me the epithet dainty. But dainty connotes a wealth of associationsthat are […]

Inchworm Inchworms, having healthy outlooks,love fruits and vegetables. Loopsor wickets of tubular green vinyl,they measure not in inchesbut in centimeters, beingcaterpillars of geometer moths.So they grow up to fly at nightand sometimes self-expend in flames.Because the inchworm lacks legsin the middle of its bodyit grips frontally, draws up the rear.Many people also move that way,but […]

Crows A murder of crows hurtles skywards. Abandon in their jangled ragged movements. They resemble a pile of rags. Flung and snatched by an angry wind. Are uncoordinated. Form a jagged line as if no-one has given them a route. They struggle toward banked clouds that seem to dip lower. Make the day as grey […]