Culture

  Liturgical Loopholes   I. Scheduling Redemption: The Pious Musings of a Serial Sinner I must confess when I transgress...

  Threefold Sorrow by Anonymous, 13th century translated from Middle English by Martin Briggs Among my thoughts are always three...

  The Tomb on the Hill The ancient tomb sits brooding all alone Atop a rocky hill, remote and bare....

  Vilnius Opera, 1993 "Those costumes look professional!" he gasps, Goggling the stage through my aunt's high-end glass. Of course...

  The Scapegoat Their memories select the bad, forget The good. Their hypersensitivity And need for higher maintenance won't let...

  Bird Song At five a.m. the avian chorus starts So fervently you’d think they had not heard That men...

  Ulysses He stands upon the sandy strand alone. He has been dropped off, stranded, left. A crow caws out...

  To Once Have Been Immortal A mountain swollen with the impudence of jaunty youth, unfazed by plodding Time, aspires...

  The Bartender He seemed a little out of place when he walked in that night. The bar was pretty...

  The New Satanic Mills "And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded...

  Mac Modernist All mortal works are destined to decline, And in this fall, doth poetry align, As all inheritance...

  The Measure of a Woman (or a Man) We’re measured in our mother’s womb by ultrasound to check all’s...

  King of Poets Salaciously Saul slouches on the throne (Backbiting envy never sits upright) Since David’s victories surpass his...

  Art and Nature The well is deep Where poets keep Their unused words, And sylvan groves Are treasure troves...

  Star of Wonder We read of three Wise Men at Christmas each year Who left home on a journey...

  Yeonmi Park’s Advice to Americans You don’t ever want to be a country that’s like North Korea, where a...

  Caravaggio Light floods the window, spearing glass and Matthew. Leaning forward now, in conversation, he is called. The bright...

  Refrigerator Bird “Say the word for penguin.” Jen Jen waited. Silence. Then I guessed: “Refrigerator bird?” Laughter shook the...

  The Mayor’s a Maniac by Susan Jarvis Bryant The zodiac’s off track. The Little Bear is lost. The mayor’s...

  Single Room Cigarette, 17th Floor Yale Club of Manhattan “...the earthly city glories in itself; the City of Heaven...

  The Swarm "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" From Lord of the Flies, by William Goldring...

  New Year’s Peeve   I. Cassandra’s Countdown The Eve arrives in sequin-spangled zing. The clock ticks on as tipsy...

  Dearth of Emotional Intelligence Most everyone believes they have the skill To understand and manage their emotions, But some...

  Real Poetry Free verse is naught but prose in guise. No one can tell me otherwise. Confessions, images, and...

  Flaws Awareness of a flaw Does not negate its gnaw; It chews upon the self And cultivates itself. Investing...

  Her Grace The day arrived when Edna was too blind To live alone. She gave her things away— The...

  An Open Book I pray that I may be an open book, A simple person on a simple path,...

  Darkness and Dawn   I. Christmas Whispers A brood of vipers slithers in the sun With darkest hearts and...

  Nativity In midnight fields we eating, bleating sheep (and some asleep) pursued our ovine way as shepherds rudely passed...

  Ishtoka There’s a lake on the way to Ishtoka Bay whose name I won’t recite. It’s the kind of...

  Krampus Traces, Tracks and Rounds ’em up   The Prologue St. Nicholas compiles a list each year Of children...

  Virgo Too late, too late, the summertime has gone. Alone, I wander in the bleakening That creeps across the...

  Christmas Stockings   I Nigh ev’ry sock I’ve ever worn Was gift to me on Christmas morn– A fact...

  PTSD in Ilium Come, Lethe, draw me down into your dreamy deep, That I might clear my mind before...

  Grave New Globe   I. Lair ---a pantoum You said that owning nothing was a blessing. You whipped our...

  No Doubt Someone Was Very Busy The shopping cart was in a parking space, And not the store’s close-by...

  Blooming Early or Late? This tyro of six years reads hardly a word. The idea of language displayed on...

  Ghost Lightning So ominous, this strange, unsettling sight: Sharp lightning pulses pierce the moonless sky In silence as if...

  At Dawn of Time ---after Genesis 1:1—2:3 At dawn of time God made both heaven and earth. And as...

  Fool’s Paradise The words from fools surround us all— they’re siren calls that can entice our base desires, and...