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A Sonnet on Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” Two neighbors both bring bricks in burly hands,their gnarled knuckles ready for the taskof keeping neighbors friendly when demandsof conversation’s more than they would ask. They’ll share a calloused smile once they’ve returnedeach spring, to make sure neighbors will atonewith reparations for theContinue Reading

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On November 22, 1963, Joan sat on the gym floor, dressed out for gym class when the news of President Kennedy’s assassination blared through the loud speakers, reverberating down the halls.Coach Mancini came out of the office to talk to her girls, tears streaming down her face. All stood asContinue Reading

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There was an old woman. I was quite young and green to the ways of the world. She looked like she might be a homeless person wandering about the mall in her shabby topcoat and unkept, mop-like gray hair. But she wanted to read something serious, she said, and thisContinue Reading

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“…She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!” John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” Don’t let him take those pictures when the water meltsluminous pearl around youand the last sunbathers ascend the pale ribbon trailleaving behindthe day’s opalescent heart when onlyContinue Reading

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Mendacium1 Blavabarbae maximum erat quod fuit una atque unica regula2: uxorem novissimam aliquid quod cuperet3, dummodo illud solum libidinosumque — non figere4 pusillam clavem in pusillam seram — ne ea ageret5, agere posse. At vero hoc fuisse modo principium, modo probationem scimus. Uxor cecidit (atque ut fabulam narraret6 haec similisContinue Reading

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Most of the fairgoers observed the comely womanrobed like a statue in layers of gossamer clothfair hair plaited and piled. She strode down the midway past lights that flashed and jangled, music tangledand tuneless. She paused to stare at the Ferris wheelarcing like a rainbow, tracked the buckets bobbing againstContinue Reading

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An Evocation of the T’Ang Dynasty The leaves have fallen early this year.Butterflies are pale and move slowly now.The reeds reflect the water,a blue shade neither sea nor sky.The wind from the east brings rainin clouds covering the whole earth.At the water’s edge the willows lamentthe passing of the seasonsfromContinue Reading

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“At last a deed worth doing. I say there is beauty in this….” Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler Hedda, we misunderstood you,saw a monster embodyingthe Seven Deadlies,a remorseless disrupter,deceptive and cruel,eluding boredom, inflictingpain. But your handsome faceand warrior heart weren’tsensible gear for your day. Were you a goddess, we’d expectthe flirtingContinue Reading

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MANUS Needlework in Letterpress Ps Smithereened glass.Scalp. Gore And Qs. Footprints muck-upOn P.E. kit. Stockpiled bales. Sill. LUKE Lady Penelope Viscous feed Suitcase vacuumed.Bobs arm. Into jardinière. Passport thumbed.Sputnik chair Gust throughRustles. Unfastened sash. HERBERT Heroism inked. Pyramid of Foozled call.Vainglory in. Tins. Customer Sudoku puzzle.Speech bubbles. Directions. ALBERTINE PoodleContinue Reading

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An Evocation of Elizabethan Drama We look in the world’s eyeto ask if we are so wise now.When all is not well words dare not failto be the questions that answer allthe world will ask of doubt and shame.Our will is articulatein finding the meaningof a balance of possibilities.We winceContinue Reading