by Natasha Sajé

Like dead moths, some
dissolve to grey on my palms.

New ones jump like crickets —
I don’t know where they’ll land, and fear
where I tread.

The others are bees.  Their industry
sustains me, their hum the music

I need to hear.

by Melissa Crowe

Love, let us be clowns to one another
our mouths drawn down, yes, but
every frown and tear merely
grease paint.  Let’s see how many
of us can fit into a car, a suitcase,
a flaming hoop until your orange
poof burns up and when you cry out
the crowd howls — oh, love, the hilarity
of a clown on fire, the polka dot
tie, and I make a show of hopping
on my false feet in my giant pants,
waving my arms and squeezing
the bulb on my trick corsage,
all this mock triage, but you never could
die, nobody laughs at a dead clown,
you just fall down and pop up
like a weeble.  Love, what do you say,
let’s be lions together, big cats
on tiny stools, swatting the man
with the bull whip so he sweats lead,
until he puts his head in our toothy
mouths, a daily feat, and we are
bored and maybe
hungry, and nobody can tell quite
what we’ll do for meat.  Let’s be
girls on the high wire, spangled
and earnest, hurtling to clasp
hands, the silence of held breath
in the stands.  Let’s lie in bed afterward
in our red tent eating peanuts
and unlacing our costumes, our kisses
salty exhalations, love, let us be
love to one another, ridiculous,
ferocious, and brave.

by Michael Macklin

Let the world do her work,
sky juggling clouds,
waves moving away
and returning.

Let flowers on the shore
become doors or doves.

Surround yourself
with the deep blueness of being.

Fill with silence
a great spirit bell
with no clapper,
no need.

The moon passing
on its own journey
will hear you
and move on still.

by Michael Macklin

They must talk,
the flowers and the fishes.
One overhanging the other,
pale pink at the water’s edge.

One world bleeds into the other,
the rose of an inner salmon
reflected in a flower’s upturned face.
Small breezes stir ripples.

Small-handed waves
clear the mirror
allowing us to see
how alike we all are.