Culture

  Out at Third We’d been good friends until I kept saying, “Yes!” And she, who felt uneasy, kept saying, “No!” My heart was beating hot, I must confess, When she said, “Stop,” and my green light said, “Go.” At times we’d been to First and Second base But even...

  Different Strokes The sin for which old Yahweh leveled Sodom, Though scholars, on this point, may disagree, Is penetrating someone else’s bottom, And so today we call it sodomy. But what, then, should we think about Gomorra, Which perished in that same destructive wave? Did people there, complicit with...

  Violin Vengeance In circumstances that exist no more, A rickety old mill stood near the border Of provinces in Poland and Ukraine, And there a Jewish miller ground the grain Of peasant farmers whose good land and weather Produced enough to eat or sell or trade, And pay tax...

  Jekyll and/or Hyde When we observe what seems to us to be phenomena that should not co-exist, but somehow do so paradoxically, our brains freeze while our thoughts contort and twist. We’ve seen light act like particles and waves, which we have proved, but still can’t understand. We’re smart...

  Prophesy to the Wind “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man….” ---Ezekiel 37: 9 Prophesy to the wind---for only the wind Listens. None in this dry, eviscerated land Hastens To hear; they’re deaf to prophecies, and blind To demons. I whisper warnings, breathe them through dry grasses. Omens...

  Qoheleth —Hebrew title for the speaker in Ecclesiastes I know a God-sized hole stays in our souls. The mind abhors a vacuum, seeks the whole. God set eternity in human hearts— A worthy search, until things fall apart. It seems so much in life is hit or miss. How...

  Liturgical Loopholes   I. Scheduling Redemption: The Pious Musings of a Serial Sinner I must confess when I transgress I keep my conscience squeaky-clean. A swift disclosure lessens stress. A sinner’s innards burn and roil. I keep my conscience squeaky-clean. A word of mercy quells the boil. I’m quick...

  Threefold Sorrow by Anonymous, 13th century translated from Middle English by Martin Briggs Among my thoughts are always three That steal my happiness from me. One is that I must away; One, I do not know the day; The third One is my greatest woe: I know not whither...

  The Tomb on the Hill The ancient tomb sits brooding all alone Atop a rocky hill, remote and bare. Perched like a vulture on a dismal throne, It overlooks a valley green and fair With baleful gaze, as if to guard its own. Dark, slippery steps of crumbling cobblestone...

  Vilnius Opera, 1993 "Those costumes look professional!" he gasps, Goggling the stage through my aunt's high-end glass. Of course they are. What does he take us for? This is a European capital. I'm half-American myself. It rasps--- Association with his lack of class. I'm almost twelve, look daggers at...

  The Scapegoat Their memories select the bad, forget The good. Their hypersensitivity And need for higher maintenance won't let Their feelings dwell on positivity. They lay you out and flay you out to save Their cultic souls from self-reflecting doom, Ignoring facts, inventing ways to tar And feather you,...

  Bird Song At five a.m. the avian chorus starts So fervently you’d think they had not heard That men subdued the earth and killed the birds (Too many hit the skyscrapers, etc.). Now these descendants of the dinosaurs (The last great owners of our pendant world), Not having learned...

  Ulysses He stands upon the sandy strand alone. He has been dropped off, stranded, left. A crow caws out above a fleshy bone. Unknown, this no one in particular, so low in spirit, walks along Poseidon’s ledge. He looks on naught. There is no Trojan Horse. Long suffering, he...

  To Once Have Been Immortal A mountain swollen with the impudence of jaunty youth, unfazed by plodding Time, aspires to lofty realms of Providence as blight and battle interrupt the rhyme of living Earth. And that was I, a life ago, oblivious to wisdom, drowned by notions of a...

  The Bartender He seemed a little out of place when he walked in that night. The bar was pretty crowded, it was nearly 10 p.m. He slid a little money on the bar and grabbed a beer, then found his way to where the smoke was thick and light...

  The New Satanic Mills "And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?"  ---William Blake Whatever’s happened to that scepter’d isle, That earth of majesty, that seat of Mars, Where aged veterans were wont to smile, And...

  Mac Modernist All mortal works are destined to decline, And in this fall, doth poetry align, As all inheritance is thrown away, And our dear art is subject to decay. As Flecknoe’s kingdom, ancient and forlorn; Revived by petty princes full of scorn, Is made the lesser through the...

  The Measure of a Woman (or a Man) We’re measured in our mother’s womb by ultrasound to check all’s well, a heads up for an infant’s room, to know will pink or blue be swell. We’re measured on the day we’re born, when by the pound and ounce we’re...

  King of Poets Salaciously Saul slouches on the throne (Backbiting envy never sits upright) Since David’s victories surpass his own. The king’s hard heart and weakened faith excite Malevolence for which he won’t atone. Young David could have cured the spirit’s flaw With moving melodies from seven strings To...

  Art and Nature The well is deep Where poets keep Their unused words, And sylvan groves Are treasure troves Of singing birds That imitate The lyric prate Of mantic bards, Which might be why The morning sky Above our yards Inspires the mind To seek and find A soaring...

  Star of Wonder We read of three Wise Men at Christmas each year Who left home on a journey in search of a King. A light in the heavens God made to appear And then told them to follow and leave everything. Like them—if you’re wise—God will give you...

  Yeonmi Park’s Advice to Americans You don’t ever want to be a country that’s like North Korea, where a massive central power makes its citizenry cower. But each year, you cede control of more and more, which is the goal of those who run in each election, so you...

  Caravaggio Light floods the window, spearing glass and Matthew. Leaning forward now, in conversation, he is called. The bright and dark, a holy mass of shadow, plays across his brow. A brilliant moment, somehow stalled in time and needing nothing more to start again. The voice implores the Saint...

  Refrigerator Bird “Say the word for penguin.” Jen Jen waited. Silence. Then I guessed: “Refrigerator bird?” Laughter shook the teacup in her hand. “Best penguin that I’ve ever heard!” In the margin of my workbook page she drew a penguin, waddling, fat. This is how she teaches. Not by...

  The Mayor’s a Maniac by Susan Jarvis Bryant The zodiac’s off track. The Little Bear is lost. The mayor’s a maniac. The sacred swords are crossed. The air is hot with ire. The masses are aghast. The smoke is not a liar--- The fire’s spreading fast. The blazing grapevines...

  Single Room Cigarette, 17th Floor Yale Club of Manhattan “...the earthly city glories in itself; the City of Heaven glories in the Lord.” ---St Augustine, City of God The bathroom’s tiled hexagonal, With a 1930s pedestal Unscratched, enamel, simple sink, Fine old doorknobs “click,” not clink. A polished place...

  The Swarm "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" From Lord of the Flies, by William Goldring They swarm like flies, both day and night, Just itching for a chance to fight. They hear the megaphone. It gleams Like nacre shell, pearlescent white. They've come to find...

  New Year’s Peeve   I. Cassandra’s Countdown The Eve arrives in sequin-spangled zing. The clock ticks on as tipsy cities glitter With beams of glee eclipsing sorrow’s glare Till midnight kisses burn with bursts of spring Abloom beyond abandoned dreams that litter The gutter neath the rockets’ garish flare....

  Dearth of Emotional Intelligence Most everyone believes they have the skill To understand and manage their emotions, But some folks’ hopeless actions truly will Lead one to wonder where they got such notions. They’ll also think that they can recognize And influence emotions others hold, Which only leads to...

  Real Poetry Free verse is naught but prose in guise. No one can tell me otherwise. Confessions, images, and aches Are less than what a poem makes. It need not rhyme but it must scan. It needs a rhythmic formal plan Which should not be Procrustean, May even be...

  Flaws Awareness of a flaw Does not negate its gnaw; It chews upon the self And cultivates itself. Investing roots so deep, And sowing seeds to reap; It puts you under a spell, And tells you, "All is well!" It bores into our minds Until the soul unwinds, And...

  Her Grace The day arrived when Edna was too blind To live alone. She gave her things away— The china owl with one glass eye—her mind Was on the bumps in sidewalk cracks that day. A flowered pitcher, empty, save for tears— She knew what faced her in that...

  An Open Book I pray that I may be an open book, A simple person on a simple path, Where all my words flow seamless as a brook, To find a sea of love unswayed by wrath. For to pursue You is the path that’s pure, The honest way...

  Darkness and Dawn   I. Christmas Whispers A brood of vipers slithers in the sun With darkest hearts and airs of starkest white. These snakes of robe and ring and tricky tongue Bedazzle with a bright, misguiding light. They swirl a smoky trail---a spicy spell That leads the lured...

  Nativity In midnight fields we eating, bleating sheep (and some asleep) pursued our ovine way as shepherds rudely passed the time till day its shining rays above the hills should peep. When of a sudden in the sky so steep a thing with wings all shiny silver-grey so frightened...

  Ishtoka There’s a lake on the way to Ishtoka Bay whose name I won’t recite. It’s the kind of mere where things disappear in the middle of the night at a time in your life when some wretched strife that you scarcely can explain has you pulling oars between...

  Krampus Traces, Tracks and Rounds ’em up   The Prologue St. Nicholas compiles a list each year Of children who’ve been good and who appear Deserving of the presents on his sleigh, Who treat their fellows nicely, come what may. But what of youths who roam about the streets...

  Virgo Too late, too late, the summertime has gone. Alone, I wander in the bleakening That creeps across the fields before the dawn And beg my heart to not feel anything. The leaves come down in rusting drifts of gold, Set free by winds flown south on silver wings....

  Christmas Stockings   I Nigh ev’ry sock I’ve ever worn Was gift to me on Christmas morn– A fact the mind should quick embrace Since stockings hang from fireplace __On Christmas morn.   II A naked sole in summer’s heat Gives easing breeze to fevered feet. But, in the...

  PTSD in Ilium Come, Lethe, draw me down into your dreamy deep, That I might clear my mind before I go to sleep. And bear me to the cave of Hypnos, where, it’s said, Nepenthe can be purchased from the thriving dead. You are the fairest daughter of your...