Free Time

October 21, 2023  :: 0 comments

Natalie scanned the park. She was there as a mother taking her preadolescents on an “adventure.” She, herself, had visited those grounds many times during the earliest spans of her life. As a girl, she had used the baseball diamonds for softball. Similarly, she had rocked on the playground’s plastic horses and had used the swings to reach the moon. …

Rockets

featured in the poetry forum October 21, 2023  :: 0 comments

Rockets, not UFOs, fireworks, affable probes,
Fall on kids, babes, lovers, dogs, horses,
Until we say tolerance is overrated.

editors note:

This is no game of catch! Both sides lose. – mh clay

Matthew’s Akita

featured in the poetry forum July 28, 2023  :: 0 comments

Matthew’s Akita snarled wide-eyed
After tracking border crossing sights.
Strong, long canine teeth locked as a
Necessary deterrent. Paws compelled
Unwanted bits even as a soldier sat
Atop rubble and watched.

Soldier’s new baby crawls on cement.
That child’s ma funds scholars, bakes
Challah, kindles candles, warms dill-
Laced chicken broth, amidst potato
Kugel trays packed to feed hungry
Yeshiva bucharim.

Rabbi Rosenberg guards hilltops. He
Counts grenades, stones, rocket shells.
At night, he sings Tehillim, bristles at
Heaven for answers. Yet, his outpost
Loses men, women, children, homes,
Repeatedly.

On the sidewalk of a busy street, the
Rav’s uniformed children scamper. No
Fence staves off the delight the youth
Realize when freed from studies. Still,
It’s their dad’s explanation of Talmud
That fuels them.

editors note:

The view from one side of a war-worn wall. – mh clay

Bottled Residence

July 25, 2023  :: 1 comment

The second time that I opened the door to the Procyons’ house, I still saw no family portraits. However, I noticed a bottle of liquid soap had been left on their kitchen table. The Procyons had hired me via email. Their instructions were to accept offers no less than five per cent off their asking price and to encourage tenders …

Adjudicating Uprightness

featured in the poetry forum April 23, 2023  :: 0 comments

In states of affairs exemplified by gender (re)interpretation,
By last century’s French Canadians’ linguistic quarrels and
The PLO/ Israeli conflict, incommensurability baffles.

Employing a system of adjudicating uprightness can lead to
Scaffolding communication’s stimuli, necessarily involving
Odd ducks of distinction and similarity.

Perpetuating double-bind messages while confusing cultural
Epistemology shows concrete jargons exposed conveyances;
Exclusivity’s ascription of worth is deadly.

Collusion remains poison as does doxing rhetors since many
Undergalvanized troupes attempt cogent discourse to poison
Status quo limits that bail up denizens.

Our politics unwaveringly vary—we are unlike, incongruous,
Fail to be referenced as “acceptable,” else become impulsive.
Thoughts can serve us as verbal hapkido.

Rather, we must illustrate metatheories, raise questions about
Standards, values, and virtues spent in communication, abide
Semantic’s new airt.

Raising questions about merit’s embodiment invites pondering
Over ideas’ substance, relative to their arrangement, given that
Both utility and parsimony live as persuasion’s helves.

Alternation requires resocialization; dismantling of pelf gangs,
Disintegrating of fierce ukases, equally of most empathy, plus
Altogether rejecting subjective reality’s nomic structures.

Neither antimetaboles nor coercion succeed when we derive “self”
Through scripts or demarcate via dreams, deliberate “revelations,”
Grand hopes, maybe also vfx displays.

editors note:

What does a new reality “look” like? (Break out your dictionaries for this one.) – mh clay

Boreal

featured in the poetry forum February 26, 2023  :: 0 comments

In the north, auroras light the sky with flashes of brilliant washes.
Their curtains of hues drape from zenith to horizon, illuminating
Heavens otherwise dark for months.

In those taiga regions, where birch, poplars, also conifers, reach
Heights unequaled, wolverines, wolves, reindeer, ermine, hares
Caribou and lynxes hunt or hide.

The circumpolar tundra, mostly ice and snow with short seasons
Of sunlight, differs from the forests’ realm, where unevaporated
Moisture slicks the summers.

It’s the latter, cold, lonely biome, not the “top of the world” that
Faces away from our star, germinates sprouts scintillating florae,
Offers no steadfast shelter.

editors note:

Yet, we have no middle without this top. (This poem is one of many in KJ’s latest collection, “Communicated Childbirth Options,” available now on Amazon. Check it out!) – mh clay

Mirabile as well as Ill-Omened

featured in the poetry forum December 4, 2022  :: 0 comments

Sundry things sit wondrous to behold, quite miraculous, phenomenal,
Mind-blowingly prominent, extraordinary, unbelievable, exceptional,
Plus, astounding, inexplicable in function, incredible in form, equally
Marvelous, “true exemplars” for miscellany.

Contrarywise, the mediocre, the middling, the run-of-the-mill, those
Average, ordinary, hackneyed kits, situate themselves as pedestrian,
As unexceptional, routine, standard, typical, mainstream, or normal,
Else dull, unimaginative, uninspired pastiches.

All the same, generally speaking, life’s not humdrum nor brilliant.
It’s breathtaking as well as banal, alternatively archetypally exotic
Then dreary. Most certainly, goings-on are wont to sequence both
Superb moments and dreadful ones.

editors note:

Take them or not, both will come. – mh clay

Bliss

October 29, 2022  :: 0 comments

Seth wasn’t convinced that actualizing his ancestors’ birthright meant humanity would maintain nirvana. His was no dreamworld; it was filled with school and household chores. Quadratic equations and dirty kitty litter boxes marred felicity. Besides, he had asked Sandy, Derek, and Rob, during playground time, if they had ever felt the oft-referenced beatitude. Sandy complained of an extracted tooth, Derek …

In Disgracing

featured in the poetry forum September 30, 2022  :: 0 comments

In disgracing any rank, namely, all hoary tosh
Proffered by silent peers revealed as stillborn,
Devoid of organic wisdom, lacking any class
Of goodness, whether petal or leaf, bud, even
Branch, boldly, I choose duplicity over bland
Confluence. Dubious insights soften cogency.

editors note:

Just keep ’em guessing, I guess. – mh clay

Agouti Coat

September 13, 2022  :: 0 comments

Allen accidentally brushed his hand against his neck warmer. The oily, stinky hairs protecting that skin wicked away the rain pouring down. The animal that had once possessed that covering had tasted good, like wild fruits and nuts. It had been his fortune to find that large rat stuffing its snout with fallen bounty under a Jaboticaba (Allen had been …