A calming silhouette,
One which eradicates all fear,
A shoulder on which to cry,
A safe place to shed your tear.
Her kind generosity,
Her flushed rosy cheeks.
All I've ever desired
Is this girl my severed heart seeks.
True Love and its Beauty
At long last I have found you
After all this time,
Finally we're together
I am yours and you are mine.
That first night on the dance-floor,
When the lights were turned down low,
Our eyes, they met across the dark crowded room
And the path of love did show.
Our first date, a Chinese restaurant,
We laughed the night away.
'I've never felt this feeling before'
I remember hearing you say.
Back to yours or back to mine?
A decision that had to be made
And after that one, amazing night
I knew our love would never fade.
We grew up, became mature
And our love grew stronger and stronger.
But then with time came age,
And both of us were no longer.
Now we'll stay together,
Looking back at the past
It's nice to know that after death
True love and its beauty lasts.
* * * * * * * * * *
OSCAR WAGER II
The Old Man, the Dirt Path and Me
I walked along an old dirt path, my boots kicking up the dust
My spurs were old, and would not jingle because of too much rust
I must have walked fourteen miles before another soul was seen
Even though he was seated, I could tell he was tall and lean
Many miles showed upon his face as he smoked a hand rolled cubeb
There were many tales behind his eyes that glowed like ocean’s ebb
He looked and motioned for me to sit alongside the soil road
As I lowered my bottom I nearly sat on a brown toad
It hopped out of the way of my aching rump before I struck
And so I settled upon the ground wishing it all the luck
The old man began by stating his name, now it’s just a blur
As he talked the cicadas sang and the crickets they did stir
He told a tale from his childhood; dreams of running out to play
But he’d been warned that away from the local stream he must stay
He himself at eight years old walked along a trail of dirt
He came to three branches; choosing toward water and hurt
He slipped into the creek while jumping across moss faced stones
He grabbed onto a branch letting out barely distinct moans
But his cries were heard by a lone fisherman wading near
The fisherman pulled the young lad out, but he still felt fear
His mama would know something when he returned to his house
So on the walk back he concocted a tale of a grouse
Stuck in the underbrush of the forest beside the trail
When he told his mother the story she dropped her old pail
Even though she knew it to be untrue, she smiled to see
He was safe and in her arms; pouring love for her from he
Once the old man finished his tale, I took the lesson well
I sat for what seemed like hours even though I could not tell
As I continued upon my journey, I thought it through
And then I came upon a three tined fork not sure which way
I thought back to the old man’s fable as my face turned gray
Not the lesson of a mother’s love I was meant to learn
I was to learn from his mistake and know which way to turn.
A Lonely Soldier
A soldier stands on a battlefield,
Protecting the freedom of a thankless world.
Fighting the enemy he’s been ordered to kill,
While struggling to keep himself alive.
Peace is always the ultimate goal,
But death is the result of an aggressive foe.
He may disagree with the reason he’s there,
But he fights with conviction as he wages war.
May God bless this lonely warrior,
And keep him safe from harm.
A Witches Downfall
The witch stared into her bubbling vat,
“Eye of newt, and wing of bat.”
She cackled as she made her brew,
Adding wart of toad, and evening dew.
Making sure to get it right,
She boiled her brew half the night.
As the sun rose in the east,
She summoned forth the nasty beast.
Only one eye and rotting teeth,
You could feel the evil flow beneath.
A smell so foul it would make you sick,
Fur matted and stained and full of ticks,
“Take this to the tallest tree in the woods so deep,
And bury it underneath, to stew and steep.
When the time is ready, they will feel my wrath,
No one will dare to cross my path.”
On the darkest night, when there was no moon,
She called out to her lackey goon.
“Bring back the potion that you buried deep,
It is time, for I have promises to keep.
Go out to the woods, and retrieve my potion,
It is time to set the wheels in motion.”
As the hideous creature set off to his deed,
The witch reflected upon her need.
When he returned, she began her plan,
This would show them all, to the biggest man.
“Goddess of Earth, hear my cries,
May a veil of darkness cover their eyes.
Mask their sight with shades of gray,
So they see only black in the light of day.”
She poured the concoction onto the ground,
The air grew still, and there was nary a sound.
The witch’s eyes grew cloudy and gray,
And then her eyesight just faded away.
Her spell backfired and her sight was gone,
The dumb ogre buried the jar upside down.
* * * * * * * * * *
Peter Watson Jenkins
THE AUTHOR’S STORY
It came so easily at first,
Words dripped off his keyboard
In a steady stream
Of super-consciousness
He saw a strong man
Clad in skins and fur
Master of a cave community
Dwelling there with his wives
Who daily protested they were
His alone and only his
Lest he suspect the younger men
Taking advantage of him.
After the hunt
The young men ran home
Leaving the elders
Humping home heavy
Bodies of beasts they had
Done to death with
Shouts of victory.
Then the author realized
His story was not simple.
Discovered in the details
It was his own life.
Suddenly he remembered
He had been that strong man
The leader of the clan
Weary from walking
Many miles burdened
With bodies of beasts
Who came home at last
To find his careless wives
Together with the young men
Then in his fury forgot
His tiredness and age
Battled the boys
And lost.
DICE ARE NICE
One and six make seven
Six and one the same.
Smilingly I asked her
&nbs
p; Will you join our game?
Two and five are seven
Five and two as well.
First round I lost badly
Luck became her spell
Three and four make seven
Four and three does too.
Bad luck was my fortune
Dice had favored Sue.
One last throw of seven
Played my fate to seal
Sue was smiling broadly
Winning was unreal.
“If you win again Sue
I will marry you”
Dice again decided
And my luck came through.
A STRING OF HAIKUS
Operas greatly
Delight my musical wife
I get a numb bum.
We are old fashioned
Playing the Early Musick
Few people enjoy.
We have a piano
A violin and a flute
That nobody plays.
My wife smiles broadly
Preparing to sing at church
A heavenly tune.
We like the motets
Sung at mass. What we dislike
Is the long sermon.
SONNET
Where there were grassy fields and bubbling streams
Where birds would hop from branch to branch and sing
And little flowers reflected sunny gleams
Their green shoots climbing upward every spring:
Now noisy trucks piled high with human waste
With bits of furniture and broken chard
To dump upon the treasured land in haste
And in an bloody stream without regard
Of all that made the precious earth so rich
In a brash insult to sweet nature’s face
Without a thought of what they had to ditch
Piled high their insults to that hallowed place.
Then top their smelly hill of garbage greed
They cover up with grass their dirty deed.
* * * * * * * * * *
Regina Puckett
More
Tucked inside and out of view
Are dreams trying to come true
But every now and then or so
One will peek out to let me know
There’s more to life than what I see
And I can be more than I want to be
Unaware
Unbeknownst and unaware
There are angels everywhere
Calming hearts and shedding tears
Through our pain and for our fears
They hold our hands and feel our stings
They lift our hearts on the tips of feathery wings
Ships, Cows and Little Boy Blue
It was porridge in a pear tree
A Little Boy Blue Fantasy
It was love at first sight
A battle lost without a fight
It was waiting for my ship to come in
Seeing if your will would ever bend
Instead the cow jumped over the moon
And I was way too late or way too soon
Our Steps Matched
Wandering eyes and a motionless stance
Was a strange way to begin this dance
So I inhaled deeply and tried to pace
My steps to match your subtle grace
With each heart to heart and face to face
Our souls became adrift through time and space
* * * * * * * * * *
SHANNON McROBERTS
The Stages of Love
I The Eternal Love
I will love you forever
My heart sings with joy
The world will know our epic love story.
II The Spurned Love
You broke my heart
And now you have to pay
This grudge will never fade away.
III Forgiveness
In our defiant youth
We proclaimed forever
We never considered how long that was.
From my broken heart
I cursed you until the end of time.
But my heart has mended
My hate of you rescinded
And now I feel nothing towards you at all.
A Thousand Years
Tear drops shatter-
like broken shards of glass.
My heart ceases to beat-
beneath the misery.
The somber raven-
pecks at my soul.
My very core-
is numb with your lies.
The charred embers-
of all that we were.
In a thousand years-
my apocalyptic sun won’t matter.
In a thousand years-
we won’t even be a memory.
In a thousand years-
your betrayal won’t sting.
In a thousand years-
I will finally be free.
Plea
But could you just hear my plea?
My heart is breaking you see
I’m drowning in misery.
Surely you would see–if you had time for me.
Hope may float, but I don’t have long.
Do you hear that beautiful sorrowful sound?
It is the song of my shattered soul–it is almost at a crescendo.
I am sure you could hear it if you stopped to listen.
Well I am sorry I took up your time.
I know it is valuable to you.
Maybe someday soon you can make me some room on your never-ending calendar of to do.
Maybe someday soon you will stop and soothe my wounds.
But I understand you can’t make room for me today.
I will see myself out of your way.
* * * * * * * * * *
Steven Harz
A new cure
Each day I collect couch cushion pennies
Lincoln wheat copper zinc
in a dented tin bucket that I stored secretly
under our bed until the time came for me
to need an abandoned wishing well
Behind our house on welcome wooded walks
path tracks bridge brook
you gathered weeds and wildflowers
in turn of the century medicine bottles
and placed them on the windowsill to die
After we began declaring war on each other
I would sneak a handful and go
in search of soon needed hope but slowly
my pennies would disappear into the
back pocket black hole that long ago
stole gumballs and baseball cards
folded love notes and promised forevers
You began by using silence as a bargaining chip
and later your used anger like an arrow
finally you tried to push me away with your words
but your actions finally worked and the
result was indifference and to heal the wounds
that both of us caused but neither wanted
you emptied your bottles in search of a new cure
Following the railroad tracks
Baltimore Ohio Chesapeake Pennsylvania
with full bucket and empty pockets
I found my well and kissed each coin
before tossing it into our future
and as the caboose rolled past and
the view beyond was distant but clear
I saw you sitting on a fallen log
holding a fistful of white dandelions
against the fast fading train
scattering your own million wishes
Misplaced heart
The morning news showed a story about
a baby born with her heart on the outside
and as we watched together
you in your new world and me in our old one
I touched the screen as it beat outside of her body and
learned that doctors had to build a
hole in her chest to make room for what they called
her misplaced heart
When you were barely older than her
you molded your own discarded steel heart
into recycled brass knuckles
allowing you to fend off love in the name of hurt
and in the years since have passed time
smoking wooden matches while drinking milk jugs of gasoline
from live wire straws and riding shotgun
with ghosts of who you should have been
Abandonment hit you like a winter morning commandment
causing scars that remain tipped in red making them
look like God’s words in the Bible
and the light you are now walking toward is
our 120 watt incandescent messiah
and while you fought off love I searched for it and
where a baby with a point of view heart is loved and cried over you thought yours lost and never to be found
until buying milk by the carton I discovered your picture
So you leapt from the height of our love and
onto the rocks below hoping to induce amnesia so
you could forget your pain like they forgot about you
and if I could I would lure you home by cutting out a yellow construction paper crown with green lefty scissors
and building you a castle from forgotten fun house mirrors
that could change your point of view and
allow you to kiss yourself at every turn
Our first meeting was brief and you kissed me do hard
that it drew blood and made me reach for something sturdy
And although quick we were electric but before long
I knew you had to leave me and us and why
Now while you lay here and I watch over you
I take a break from holding your hand and brushing your hair
and think that your hospital sheets are so stiff that if