by Simon Pettet

Each portion

of perfect beauty

is acutely noted,

deftly remarked upon

and

not at all dismissed

Clap hands mouth clichés.

When did you stop loving me?

I never stopped loving you!,

How could you possibly say such terrible things?

I don’t.  You do,

You do, sweetie, you do . . .

by Simon Pettet

lizard sits on a rock

lizard sits

sun’s hot

sun refracted to lizard

through the spotlessly–clean high–rise

plate–glass windows.

lizard is not disturbed by this

not at all

lizard even opens self up wider,

stretch to properly adjust

to the sun’s rays

lizard finds health and warmth in the depth

of winter

— and this is not what lizard expects!

by Paula Cisewski

But if he was hungry the thief
or his children were

hungry who said
he has children

better if he has the thief
stealing the taste from your supper

with his lean disdain
like a crow the thief

liberating us from a bit of
our excess the thief

so intimately slides
his hand in your dark pocket the thief

grows a beard for a portable hideout
the thief is eternally strolling away

his getaway the thief ’s will it end
clumsily a mistake a pearl

brooch for his mother’s birthday
who said he has a mother

better if
the thief

retreats into night
close your curtains

there’s a raccoon
in the alley the thief

looks right through you to
your most treasured object the thief

is loyal to his private country
we assume

who said he has
a privacy the thief

that didn’t belong to
someone else first

by J. B. Sisson

“You’ve got the breasts of a mermaid,” he said
and added, “She just called.  She wants them back.”
A fantasy implodes with one wisecrack
and festers, even for a newlywed
slowly succumbing to a curious dread,
as though a comment were a sneak attack
by her beloved mythomaniac
walking a cliff trail on West Quoddy Head:
green water flashing in the rocks below,
an eagle rising on a thermal draft,
the raucous mockery of a white crow
as if a multitude of sea gods laughed
while Melusina opened her trousseau
full of the marvels of her ancient craft.