Category: articles
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Death of a Dream
Gotta put food on the table each dayI have a dream, my friends say no wayHave lots of children just have to payI got my dream carved out of me. My Dad and Momma said I was too dumb“Going to fail boy if you try until kingdom come”Now I sit here starring at that bottle…
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Lass-scorned
Alas! my lass was hubris-hurtAnd forth she went,Away she turned:“And ne´er e´er see me moAnd shun ye me,Far, thither be!”A crime, it seemed, had I performedAnd clogged her ear from all my talk.She scorned my heart,Its swell and naught.The haughty lookAnd way I walkedWas spelled to nilAnd killed in thought:“I curse at thee,Hurl ye from…
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Choose
Two paths to takeWhich do you choosethe one that everyone saysis right for you. It leads straighttrue, to security, where you neverworry about clothes or food. A homeyou will surely have three bedrooms andtwo baths. Spend your time commuting, lost timeBut what does it do to your heart, your soul? Do you wantthe life others…
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Reach
One must have a mind of winterto grow old. I refuse. My mind isof sunshine and laughter, fantasyand fate. I reach for the unknownthough my body aches. My soulflies with my dreams, still to berealized. I listen not to those thatsay, why, aren’t you too old.I reach for the unknownthough my hair is turning grey.it…
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Victuals Voyeurism
Watching a fellow shopper in the grocery store checkout aisle is a revelation of their palate and a hint of their health. I’m certain anthropologists have studied this communal phenomenon, the perusal of a fellow shopper’s victuals—you know, rubbernecking to see what the person in front of you is buying—because it’s a sociological foible we…
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A CRITIQUE OF SONNETS
Shakespeare, you’re your own jester, or a poor counselor. Love bends constantly, or it snaps like sugar in the canebrake, bows each day in these marshy thickets domesticated by decree, springing tensile, erasing from memory all the stray words, slights to that fragile and faulty soldered daily repair that improves each day the grievances it…
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NO ATTORNEY, JUDGE, OR JURY NEEDED
I never heard of herI never met her in my lifeShe’s confusing me with someone elseI was never ever in that hotel/city/countryShe is not my typeShe is lyingFlat-out lyingShe has a historyOf prostitutionThis is nothing but extortionShe is after my moneyThis is all a sick jokeAnd besidesShe is not my type
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The Porchlight
Being mortal, death stalks us like a silent shadow during the day and rests under our beds at night. Like a lamb sleeping with a freshly fed lion, we become acclimated to the beast’s mercy. As years pass, doom becomes uneasy and hungers for us. There are critical epiphanies, before death finally feasts upon our…
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Ensouled Languages
The maternity nurses in the tiny German hill-town were exasperated. ‘The black one’s bawling again,’ my mother heard them whisper among themselves. I was a talkative child and before I could talk I cried. I cried till neighbors peeked in enquiring what the pandemonium was all about. My first five years, the formative years, were…
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Ardent Spirit
This afternoon I’ll help my friend’s dog dieA malamute, husky, shepherd mix she named Sky.I met him first in the high desert 10 years agoHis shift from stray to pet was rocky and slow.He jumped the fence to roam the brushChasing jackrabbits under stars’ milky hush.Dogs who run every moment risk deathBut those who do,…
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Seventh Heaven
The October colors of the sugar maple trees along the sidewalk flickered in the slight breeze. Maples did not do well in the Phoenix climate, but that did not matter. These trees were artificial. It would take a close examination by an arborist to tell the trees were an imitation. In fact, many people preferred…
