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POETS GATHER
One deep and abiding beauty of dreamsis that it is entirely logical forMarina Tsvetaeva to be engagedIn an animated discussion withCorso and Ginsberg where none willacknowledge that the world theywrote and imagined is a total mess. Over in the corner, Mandelstam andReznikoff have agreed that for eternityevery game of chess they play willresult in a…
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A DAY
a day,clouds drop rainreplacing tearslocked insidestones and clothred and blueunseparatedstill worlds apartorderly ranksall at attentionand silencethundering angera mad worldsoaked in peaceonly untilmidnight. Publsihed in New Feathers Anthology (Summer 2020)http://www.newfeathersanthology.com/a-day.html
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ON ARRIVAL
This morning arrivedwith a painful slowness, the slothof irregular dreams refusing to concedeto the light struggling to creep aroundthe blinds that hide the oversize windows. It had been that sort of night,sleep arriving and departing witha frustrating lack of constancy, my bodyuncertain of its proper placement ,the mattress offering no easy solutions. Conceding the failure…
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CUTTING THOUGHTS
My wife pauses by the placardin the nature preserve and tells methat what I have been calling grassesare in fact a sedge known as sawgrass. She points out the warning thatit’s serrated on the edge and earnedits name from those who graspedit without knowing or thinking first. I feign listening but she knowsmy mind is…
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NATURE REMINDS
Last night, all the romanticcomedies worth watchingon Amazon and Netflix havingalready been seen, many twice we had no choice but to optfor a coming of age tale on Netflixaccompanied by the mellifluoustones of Sir David Attenborough. In my dreams last night there wasa debate between the Gentooand Emperor Penguins as to whichwas the more enrapturing,…
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UNCLE
My uncle writes his journalin cramped Yiddish, Englishwill not do, it lacks the wordshe says, to describe his world. He describes the flavorof the capon left to stewon the stove, the sweet tasteof carrots and prunes. He carefully notes the thumbof the butcher sliding ontothe back of the scale, applyingjust a dollar of pressure. He…
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SIPPING
I spent much of the afternoon tryingto imagine you, spending a small partof an afternoon reading this poem. I have no clear picture of where you are,but the chair is well cushioned, andyou sit deeply in it, a glass of some amber liquid on the glass and metalend table, just within arm’s reach.I suppose, since…
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TESTAMENT
Christ and his discipleswalk slowly through the lobbyen route to the bar, discussingthe evil of war and blind obedience.They push three tables togetherand slowly drain the pitchersof Bud draft, laughingover the sound of the Karaoke.As the evening draws itselfinto night, he boastsin Aramaic that hehas translated more than halfof the Bhagavat Gita,although he much prefersthe…
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PURSE AND WALLET
A woman’s purse is inviolable territoryshe tells me, and no man dare look withinunless invited and that is as unlikey to happenas a man is to fully understand a woman. What she doesn’t say, but what time hasdemonstrated to me repeatedly, is thatwithin that small space is the solutionto most of life’s pressing problems, a…
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PARTY
In my dreams I am invitedto an almost endless cycleof parties where I always fit inand share attention as I give it. It’s different in my day life, whereI draw only the occasional invitation,and then usually as the plus one,and I am expert at finding corners, where I can be observer, notobserved, and need not…