by Kathleen Ellis

At the Tower
they are babbling again.

A girl blurts out
Beasts!

for we are like them.
We are not men or women
of our word

and all this talking,
stumbling over
the difficult words,

is not enough
to build a tower
where all words fall

into silence.

by Jami Macarty

A spoon stirs inside a woman’s stomach.
A woman is confused.  A woman wants to be loved.

A woman wants to fix what’s wrong.
A man says there’s nothing wrong.

A woman knows better.
A woman thinks a woman can make it better.

A man can want two women at once.
A woman can be two women at once.

by Jami Macarty

                                      Baja California Sur, Mexico

            1.
Limpets dangling from the backdrop —

Here’s the shoreline in Baja to walk for hours
            to walk and no longer be seen —

The wind strikes a ready sail
            imagine whales —

Our talking falls through the pearl seam of the waves —

            2.
You spin the moon on your index finger
            donate the total eclipse to my cause —

I swear to you I feel the earth move
            the slip–disk of our shadow —

I become watery —
            my mouth leaks the past across the desert —

            3.
I am tired of the moon —

I give myself the bed for my neck —

I pull up the covers
            save myself the drama —

            4.
The moon climbs off the earth —

by David McCann

All of it?

Yes, all of it.  I want
all of it off.

So he did it.
This is what she paid him for,
how he made a living.

Her reddish–brown hair
fell all around her on the floor
as he stepped and stepped,
clipping as he did.

Small snippets of conversation fell too,
all around.
The mirror on the wall.