by Jeffrey Cyphers Wright

You came to me, twigs on the ground after a storm.
You came to me, a meteor on your shoulder.
I found you churning, a tugboat towing a river.

Amorous murmurs led to being counted on.
Hugging the shore. Ice on the deck.

Iron Knee. Meet me at the bend! You came
to me as a code that was meant to be an ode.

You will leave through a door made of tears
opening on evening’s court. Night’s ravenous ink
unleashed from the East swallowing the clock.

Trust sorrow’s long tail, curling up by your bed.
Waiting for the heart’s ship to unmoor.

Each of your eyes is in a rivalry with the divine.
By the river, a highrise hands the sky a black plume.

by Jeffrey Cyphers Wright

Blown sidewise, cherry blossoms flee
from branches. Over the street they slide,
a moving rug, and turn the gutters pink.

People are happy to watch the Titans play.
To practice their backhand. To stream
the latest meme about societal extremes.

The marrow of sorrow stirs in my bones.

I like it when you correct m y misnomers.
We look up how to pronounce sepulcher.

We look up George de la Tour. Then we
eat strawberries and kiss the good night.
In the dark, eyes shut, our states unite.

When I get to Portland, I’ll send a card.
The sea will begin and white lilies ignite.

by Alan Craddock

Over leaden sky she waits,
Leans on town of broken bridge and decrepit road.

Corrupt design of Sycamore and butterfly,
Have spun their deadly mechanism to field, path and dwelling.
Like that of ancient Caltrop,
Trapping horse and man, in wars waged long ago.

Fallen seed of tragedy,
Wait with stoic indifference,
Eviscerate soldier, mother and playful child,
With unmerciful patent.

Heavy heart loaded Nimbus, Climbs high, to cleaner cloud where she cannot see.
Too much to bear, she pours out onto forsaken land.

With passion for crop and harvest, Twisted tractor and blood stained plough occur,
Cast blood and fret on farmers ancient trade.

Indomitable crop that waits for no war,
Hurries them,
To banish that of perverted killer seed.
Cultivated and propagated plan,
Sanctify field, fore st, school and home.

Leaden cloud with warm return,
Nimbus beckoned.

She, with heart a-full,
Will soak a land of returned abundance.
To a blue lark sky and golden plain.

by Alan Craddock

Revet your heart and mind.
Seek keystones and gather jigsaws of stoic courage.

Set them; far, wide, deep, and in strategy.
Which confound and dislocate, his dark plans of callous ruin.

Observe a signature, flawed in bold.
Abasing plan of stubborn rumination.
A bolus of resistance, crawling to impoverish his temper to leaden dullness.

He will long for deep waters of pious victory,
Stealing forward in glutinous pursuit.
But your standing nerve;
It breaks his teeth.

Obsessed in conjecture and spin.
Distortion and perverse shadow,
He; Commits hammer and sickle,
to tragic folly, in full thunderous gallop.

Well read historic chapter and verse fail to remind,
Striking; full measure.
That of sorrowful deception and broken word.

Iron curtained, Imprisoned hearts, clad in blossoms of forfeited purpose,
Fall, fall, and fall again.
Toward a precipice of inescapable ditches,
That even his dark rhetoric cannot tame.

Cohort spirits. That once did not see, now see.
Chase light toward bursting sun, Open wide a curtain of full reveal.
To bask in opportunity, change and promise.

Equip then, all tides, for they shall turn.

Prepare the Cossack for the lizard which alights,
Watch carefully….
As he runs from his house, or fails to repent.

His final page, deciphered beyond veiled Muscovite wall.
On bleeding knee and salt beaten brow.
They shall Stoically recall his elixir of lies,
Trial and sentenced with brisk castigation.

Punitively carried; between rope and post.