by Kendall Merriam

It’s high tide on an old coast
your warriors and court
await your orders
across the earth
knowing you have faced pain
but that has sharpened your mind
and that you will
step into the world
to save it from its own folly
Is this too much
to ask of a young woman
who may want to study ballet
in France or Brazilia
or run down a soccer field
playfulness still hanging on
but serious with three or four languages
you are well prepared
for a life of challenge and honor
you are kind to family and friends
but you take wisdom
from books and old scholars
to be prepared for a life of service

by Kendall Merriam

She changed my mind
on the way home from Shakespeare’s summer place
no political stance, no food riot
just how much she loved Robert Fagles
for his translations of Homer
it caused me to buy a set
later to send one to the Empress
I have to confess
I have not read both
all the way through
I do not know if my eyes will hold up
but there the books are, beside my bed, waiting
the life of ancient earth
giving a solid base of learning
of our little harbor and the islands
of the Greek Sea
It brings me away from the Maine Coast
to the coast of the Universe
where stellar Giants wreak havoc
with bronze swordplay, Greek fire
and knowledge of the mind’s freedom
where we ride to our destinies on Pegasus

by Wayne Atherton

Gay culture co – opted the rainbow,
adopted Judy Garland, bought up
all the tickets to every Cher concert,
left us dull heterosexuals with Nascar
and Nashville top forty country & western
songs about infidelity and divorce.

by Wayne Atherton

What of the unseen elder
Outlaw rebel death bird

Gazing out from red – rimmed watery eyes
Fraught with indignation, accusing all sleeping
Life with palsied hand

(odd how some noses come to resemble bird beak)

Into whose withering temple will next he light
Beckoning complicit witness

Death bird now nearly departed

Perched overhead, next to that crow