later-life issues
I wonder if the nurse
has a boyfriend
—John Hawkhead
another year
snowflakes fall
more quickly
—John Hawkhead
Google Earth
revisiting the places
I’ve never been
—John Hawkhead
lost in our own thoughts
so long since we kissed
with open mouths
—John Hawkhead
child bride
the soft plaintive cries
of a collared dove
—John Hawkhead
new nest…
mornings begin early
at my window
—Vaishnavi Pusapati
laughing at nothing,
the sitting baby
falls over
—Vaishnavi Pusapati
Returning from the river trailhead in early spring I don’t notice them until they are fluttering all around me like dozens of orange-black leaves blown heavenward.
clouds part
I chase rainbows
on Rose River
A live reading (Oana Maria Cercel).
each autumn
out-of-state visitors
search along highways
for the most colorful leaves
not the trees I cut down
—Royal Rhodes
along the coast
the maps I follow
show observation posts
where sea lions echo
in open caves
—Royal Rhodes
a dead fawn
sprawled in the garden
until found
while the indoor cat
sat nearby in silence
—Royal Rhodes
hikers ahead
make a trail for me
brushing aside stones
someone threw
safe now in my pocket
—Royal Rhodes
our family dog
a tired german shepherd
comes close
to show me
how to lie down
—Royal Rhodes
pastel shades
she stopped using
all those words
—Ravi Kiran
the glow rises
in a child’s eyes
sky lantern
—Ravi Kiran
He now existed as fragments suspended above the barren landscape of after work cocktails and idle chit chat. Where time flowed slowly like ripples in the sand. He felt truly lost wherever people gathered for laughs – the one who never got the joke. More observer than participant, alien spaceship that had slipped its moorings to hover in the distance, he barely cast a shadow on the lives around him. No longer belonged. Unwanted. Unwelcome. He’d rather be home alone, disappeared in a favorite fantasy novel. He had no idea how to put all the fragments together again and sink into the sands of life where he might matter once more, or for the first time.
blue sky
in the desert
the sun's glare
