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PADUA, ITALY 1844 Curious young scholar from NaplesWandered into a fertile private gardenHe first saw through his guest bedroom window.By an unusual purple shrub with botanical gems, an exquisite bloom stood Slender, alluring, barely comingInto womanhood. Her scent,Cloying like lavender. Her touch,Lethal like aconite. The maiden Her famous scientist fatherCalledContinue Reading

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Stella walked to the window of her hotel room and threw it open. She had asked for a ground-floor room with a view over the beautiful gardens, filled with lush tropical vegetation and showy flowers.She had arrived in Jaipur, in northern India, earlier in the day by train from Delhi.Continue Reading

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Footsteps of the dead,silent in darkness and light,guide lost children home. Lynette G. Esposito, MA Rutgers, has been published in Poetry Quarterly, North of Oxford, Twin Decades, Remembered Arts, Reader’s Digest, US1, and others. She was married to Attilio Esposito and lives with eight rescued muses in Southern New Jersey.Continue Reading

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Gosh what a couple of egg heads those Goths were / A real match forged in cartoonish annihilation / They were the talk of the neighborhood for the better part of the season & shook all the pine needles down to weave baskets for their Chinese-crested named Thing / ThenContinue Reading

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I dream of the Sequoiassingingwhen the breezedances amongst maestrolimbs— carving invisible piano noteson their bark.The song is oldI cannot understand the ancient lyric. My wild pen shards words on this pagelike fragmentscrushed by the thought of giantswho do not speak my languageand I cannot express theirs. Lynette G. Esposito, MAContinue Reading

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The trees behind my house are old…very old……when the new neighbor moved in,he had many sawed down–claimed they were a dangerto his home.The neighbor stood and listened—I did as well–each thump on the groundbeat the earth like a drumwith no rhythm. Do trees hold a grudge?Underneath where their roots areContinue Reading

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Dandies moved into Peacock Lane & put a sexy leg lamp in their postage stamp bay window / The HOA was pissed but could hardly do a thing to stop gentlethems from erecting sexuality like a lacy middle finger / The chairwoman of the decoration subcommittee made salted pistachio brittleContinue Reading

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“Your library is your paradise”Erasmus Kees* didn’t tell his mother because she worked days cleaning other people’s houses. Plus she’d only make things worse. Her limited English skills – especially when angry – yelling and spitting in half-Dutch, advocating for her son’s welfare, would not have helped matters because itContinue Reading

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The Dandies bought the house from a nice goth couple who just couldn’t with Mrs. Peacock Lane / Her campaign against them also began on move-in day & they both worked so hard at keeping up their own appearances the decoration subcommittee took advantage of their missing cats to poisonContinue Reading