Sample Poems Issue Two

Dormouse, Afterwards

VERA KROMS
 
The table is a morgue of teacups.  
      The sugar a disgrace.
 
Mindless as asparagus, the hatter and the hare
      lie face down, suffering 
from what inhabits them.
  
The afternoon has been chewed and drunk, 
      its buckled moments giving 
like a broken girdle.
 
A child in pinafore jammed 
       decorum.   
 
Among the crockery, I pursue leftovers, 
        tiny vacancies.
 
Those below notice must in turn 
        notice to remain unextinguished.
 
I rest in mousenaps, heed a white
        rabbit polishing his little shoes.

 

YONI HAMMER-KOSSOY

Greetings from Planet e, Forty Light-Years Away

good peoples

we hope this gets through

your news flog

in these low times

you are not alone

we too have small men

must make

ignore & the love

it’s what must be done

we look out at terrible space

& envy your long years

your sun so ablaze

remember the dark makes way

for almond tree bloom

LIBBY MAXEY

Farm museum, flax country

After scutching came the hackle—

            a bed of nails.

In the house, spinning

            and winding yarn on the squirrel cage swift.

She was named Thankful

            so he could say it

when he came for supper

            on a cloud of unmade clothes.