an old writer and his words

  • MS WORD THESAURUS

    birthbeginningopeningbreachalienationestrangementenmitymalicemalevolencehatredrepugnancehostilityconflictbattlecombatassaultonslaughtaggressionbrutalitysavagenessatrocitycrimeassaultstrikebeatvanquishcrushannihilatedestroymurderhomicidedeath First published in The Candid Review, Issue 3, 2024https://thecandidreview.org/ms-word-thesaurus/

    Lou Faber

  • CONSOLATION PRIZE

    I do not remember the faceof the nurse who carried meaway from you the daythe door to an alien worldwas thrown open for me.Did either of you look closelyor did I become one moremoved slowly downthe obstetric conveyor.I would have liked somelink to my birth, somethingmore than the naked assurancethat it happened and thatthere was…

    Lou Faber

  • YUNJU’S “PLACE THAT CANNOT BE CONTAINED”

    Ask yourself whoyou were beforeyou were born?You will saythere was no you.And yet when youare fully in the momentthere is no you.Are you unborn? A reflection on Case 94 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • BONDS

    When she asks me if I remember whenI lost my virginity I have to stopand consider the question beforethe obvious answer appears and I say“according to my birth certificate, Ilost my virginity at 11:31 P,Mat the Washington Children;sMedical Center more than sevendecades ago, although I haveto admit I have no recollectionof the event, nor the…

    Lou Faber

  • THREE HAIKU

    sun consumes itselffurnace heat grips the citysmall maple withers setting summer sunturns the river to purplemoon comes from hiding giant cranes are perchedon thin spindly legs, necks bowedsteel beams scratch the clouds

    Lou Faber

  • CLICK

    It was three weeks ago when Ilast saw the Great Egret foragingfor twigs and sticks to carry backto the nest it was building, it beinga neutral pronoun since Egretsand many birds do not abide bystrange human gender drivendivisions of labor and child rearing.I so wanted to sneak out backwith my camera and catchthe moment when…

    Lou Faber

  • CAN YOU SEE THIS

    I live in a country that Ino longer recognize althoughI was born here and never livedin any other place.I once lived in a land of doorsthrough which the likes of usentered to find refuge, find lifebut now we build wallsand hope they allow no entry.Once we were full palettes,an endless variety of shades,of human hues…

    Lou Faber

  • THREADS

    They keep arriving in my email,sometimes one or two a day,and then nothing for a week or more.I look at them out of curiosity,because I have learned all I wantedsome time ago and they are like icingon a cake I no longer intend to eat.But they are “family” of sorts, distantalways, remote usually, but I…

    Lou Faber

  • THIS IS NOT

    This is not the poemmy birth mother meant to writemeant to tuck in my blanketwhen I was handed overto the adoption agencymeant to follow methrough childhood, youth,adulthood, to be readon the day my sons were born.It would be a poemthat would be etcheddeeply into my psychethat would echo in my mindduring the quiet moments.She never…

    Lou Faber

  • OLD BLIND DOGS

    There are times when music takes youto places and events long forgotten, likelistening to Old Blind Dogs and suddenlyI am again a new L2 with two yearsto the J.D. and bar exam, scratching byteaching SAT prep courses, when she calledand said the proverbial rabbit died and Ifinished and broke out in hives for thiswas planned,…

    Lou Faber