First Quarter 2013, Selections #1 & 2

Full Moon over Smallville 4

Señor Dwight daily walks
Baby Super Girl,
who runs up and down the gentle slope,
his wingman.
Asked how he’s doing,
     
      “I’m blessed and cannot complain…
                  To know the story of the 47 Ronin is to know Japan….’”


Overhead
in branches high
I spy a bird’s nest
back-dropped by a vastness
and his fading echo


          “…and cannot complain…but I want to.”

--Richard Velez

winter night

red pepper, soup, wine and old friends

four ways to warmth

add laughter, fire, and sex

and when the cold winds howl

then wool and memory

--Patrick Mizelle

First Quarter 2013, Selections #3 & 4

gently
rolled
smoothed

held
rocked
drenched

turns
deep
pools

eddy
currents
downward

bubbling
into
light

--Joyce Pointe

grateful lover
your eyes
are just like
eyes
and your lips

--Brian Howlett

First Quarter, 2013, Fifth Selection

#92

"Tibetan sources tell VOA that another person has set himself on fire in western China as part of a protest against Chinese rule in ethnic Tibetan areas." --Voice of America News, December 3, 2012

Released from the cocoon of his face

rising butterflies of flame

unfold their wings

his eyes and lips have not

           yet been consumed

he seems engaged in his detachment

focused far beyond his immolation

but his robes are the color of a match head

           Tibetan red

           the match tip has just been struck

caught in the sight of a camera

and the combustion is still beginning.

--Wulf Losee