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DRAGONS How could the anger go the disappointment from then the mad over lost love dissipate from sight, from feelings? Wafted away in a stiff breeze Left. Smoke drifting off thru tree branches in the forest. That primal woods, green conifers covered in northern grey mosses humidity blown in from the coast so thick on the ground great brown bears walk silently on it. This is one of Life’s Dragons…
LOTHLORIEN POETRY JOURNAL UPDATE..Submissions ARE NOW CLOSED & will RE-OPEN on OCTOBER 1st 2026. I will continue to work through submissions received but please be patient. Due to a family emergency, my Muse and I have been caring for two of our grandchildren full time and are now going through the rigourous process of adopting them legally and and being vetted for a Special Guardian Order which…
5 Tan-Renga Poems Uchechukwu Onyedikam (italic) Christina Chin (plain) deep afrobeat from the nextdoor open and close a shared wall thins to a drumskin the devotees’ worship with an alignment beaded blue each blue sphere a captive storm the dance of Agbogho Mmuo raising earth the clay itself to dust village vigilance what goes around Èṣù crossroads the messenger smiles after the downpour in large…
THE WATCHING HILLS a body, still fairly young, on a blanket, motionless under the mobile stars, as the chill in stalks of coarse grass, trout lily, and jewelweed settles on hemlocks mantling these hills near ledge shelters and open caves. We have been conditioned by horror films to panic at bodies sprawled on the ground, and the documentary photos displayed of a battle-zone field station before…
Hattie’s Tea Party “I find her quite intimidating, actually,” said Dormouse sleepily, “not the sweet little girl I expected and I really hope Hattie doesn’t invite her I don’t think she would quite fit in.” “Who the cares if she fits in or not,” replied Rabbit firmly. “In a mad world no one knows their place. Hattie will be asking her questions and he knows the importance of madness, so if she…
Roll Call (i) Present Sir – the little voices chorused as they responded to their names. It took seven minutes at the start of each class. Present Sir, one after another in turn. Neat uniforms, school ties, skinned knees on child-size chairs behind ink-marked desks, where others had sat before us in earnest attention. A lifetime of possibilities stretching ahead, though such thoughts were far from…
An Unwanted Choice “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” With those words, George W. Bush drew a line in the sand and told every Muslim in America to pick a side: ally or enemy, country or faith, America or Islam. Why? Why were Muslims forced into a false dichotomy when no other religious group was? Christians weren’t; Jews weren’t; Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs weren’t. So why…
SCREENING my breasts removed and cervix too and burnt all three an early cremation of a fraction of me no eulogy and every year on universe anger day I get a text - come for screening (for the me that is ash) and the tut tut text next MISSING last seen in 2016 a couple of breasts heading to their waterloo a pair of embryonic sweat glands a first bra and she blushes Boudica’s bosom black cabs…
The Inside and The Outside of That Space Dark listens well. Light talks and talks. One word sits on the cornice. Another tiptoes on the fence. One word buries a bone. Once, while under a mad spell I dug through the whole garden, dug out your longest sentence. If I found it earlier everything and nothing would have changed. Right now, dark listens with the rapt attention of a good kid who already…
Ten Untitled Short Poems when ocean touches sky infinite blue on the other side of winter melted snow waters seeds hope grows a lone, unmarked curled-at-the-edges photo the mystery taunts I have saved every single scribble you ever wrote me ashes to ashes sprinkling on the soil reborn yesterday I opened the windows to let life in wherever I live I will forever be the gal from Kalamazoo the first…
