Angels

by Donna Hilbert

      for Jill Young

Angels file their nails, floss their teeth,
play charades and trivial pursuit,
always taking pains to keep
their fingers busy
knowing full well to be idle—
even for …

Backyard

by Leonard Orr

In my backyard, as the bower, the grotto, it should be,
I range through my lands, employing hidden hahas;
a gentle rise reveals vast panoramas, distant mists, grazing llamas.
I …

The Hotel Sublime

by Robin Reagler

I am the lobby
You are the parrot in the cage

The man named Amanda
gallantly opens the door
for the boa lady. The boa
she wears today snags
the eye–red, …

Harlem Globetrotters, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, 1971

by Jim Daniels

Mark DiPietro, recently reclassified
as the only kid on the street with divorced parents,
reaped the benefits when his absent father returned
at Christmas with Globetrotter tickets.
Classified as best …

I ♥ Life

by Amy Lawless

We passed a man by the side of the highway with two I ♥ Jesus signs that were bigger than cars and we laughed because his deep need …

Drive-In

by Chard deNiord

The still here of here was enough—a hidden spot
in the semi-dark of dusk at a drive-in theater.
We knew the feeling of being watched from behind
the screen, so …

City Limits

by Betsy Brown

We took a taxi this year.
I’m not good in cabs.

But it was late fall,
the last taste of rain;

the construction projects
finally ended, snowplows

were slowly coming out,
and we …

Invitation

by Leonard Orr

I would go with you to that tropical country
where there is no extradition, where no one asks
questions about the past, where no one gives
straight answers anyway, where …

Fable for Blackboard

by George Starbuck

Here is the grackle, people.
Here is the fox, folks.
The grackle sits into the bracken. The fox
        hopes.

Here are the fronds, friends,
that cover the fox.
The fronds get …

Hummingbird Aviary

by Michael Collier

Scarlet and teal
raven and maize
throat-blush
and wing-strobe.

Breathless stutter, vertigo,
feint, heart-frenzy,
small skitterings,
stalled vectors.

Bodies like thumbs,
syringe nose, flick-birr
of wings, blur
of invisible air.

A tongue and …

On Being Jewish, Perhaps

by Mariano Zaro

The staircase is L-shaped
with a huge cactus in the corner.
Be careful with that,
my mother says every time
we go to visit my aunt Pepa.
Today we are …

Woodland Park Sonnet

by Ann Greenberger

This was the strange time, death in life.
The trees leafless with parasitic moss.
The shell-less snails moving a little.
You understand; you have been there.

Goslings spot the grounds.
Slugs …