Candle Beacon

A month past Christmas, we see a flame at the airport,
a beacon distorted by fog and dawn’s steam.
It seems to flare, then hover,
in this misleading sky that no longer tells time.
If it burns downward, is the day passing.
We drive closer, still on the mainland, trapped by gravity,
hoping for a balloon that runs on hot air
to lift us from this gloom.
If there were more beacons,
the island could be a candleholder,
its rough contours a floating menorah.
The ice floes in the channel melt,
vapour rises,
the smoke from an extinguished candle.

++++++—Lucile Barker

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Denude

You know
intuitively
by now
that the splayed mouth
of the last buttonhole
at the end of your shirt
runs horizontally
and this saves you time
unbuttoning

[Untitled]

rhetoric like pink medicine
+++++++oozes weak greetings
she chose this+++++++blacktop and name tag
+++++++ball point pen+++++++vision
he pulls his glasses off, on: “are you at ease yet?”
she pulls at his tie, his shirt+++++++++++++++silence
+++++++the podium grows++++++++++++++light flickering
clap++++slap back his hands later+++++!++one martini
+++++++“it’s just good business”+++++++!!!++right.

++++++—Justin A. Picard

Point Clear

In Alabama I tell you that depth
is the apprehension of depth
& that everyone might just as well touch their phones
three times a minute as not
on the beach or the boardwalk
poolside or not

Rift

I reach into a moment, through its
silver sheen, flexing around my arm
grasping against the laws, letting me
look like

+++++++++chilled mercury
the night convolving above us
as we walk through the parking lot
aligning the rifts in the asphalt
with the rifts in the sky

For The Church Of The Loving System ; Your Receipt, Our Slogan (double-happiness):

Popeye the Sailor, Man pray for us sinners:
Double your pleasure; double the fun,—
With double-
Mint double-
Mint double-
Mint gum.
Just do it;
Do the Dew. . .

Kangaroo Guilt, also known as (aka) the Marsupial Version Of The Killer Whale Guilt, also known as (aka) Kangaroo Guilt

I woke up this morning and
I was++++++!
A bird was popping and
Hopping on my roof and
She whispered tweet and
Twerk++++++and
Tweet and
They don’t love you and