Lost Somewhere in Her Tan

by Dan Flore

Dan is 29 years old. He does poetry workshops for people with serious mental illness, lives In Pennsylvania.

I am lost somewhere in her tan
she spins and the earth turns in her direction
but she doesn't know it
God drips down
but only in things like manholes and mascara
she swears He's there
while part of her wishes He wasn't
she talks and everyone listens but her
she is in some sphere beyond sweat and sea
I move far when she stands
afraid my awkward walk will drift into her grace

"The Grocer" on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8tVyNC-nKM

The World Opening Ritual

by Don Schaeffer


We attend
the reverse funeral on Wednesday.
It's all so clean
in the reverence of white.
The tiny secret gates to the world
are opened once again

and the confusion
of the earth bumps up by one.
We suck up our mourning
as new-eyes-and-new-mouth,
so common yet so grand, enters.

The event lasts
longer than a kiss,
immediately catching
the attention of God.

Act Five

by Dan Cuddy

Dan has been involved with the writing community in Baltimore,MD. His book of poems, "Handprint On The Window" was published by Three Conditions Press in 2003 (available on Amazon.com).

always they said "act your age"

I tried
until I became too old
to act any other way

now
as some faces harden into a pinched sneer
and others into a pouty drop of bittersweet
the tail high but drooped over itself
a parody of a Hershey's kiss
or a Daumier head with elfin hat

i
lost all my egotistic capitalization
burn like a candle at church
gloom surounding
the little self-illuminating nimbus

i
am now a reminiscer
the wake at the tail end of the boat
a water-skier holding to life
bouncing on the plough through the lake
which was once so liquid
and shined with spoonfuls of sun
with sprinkles of moon
but now it is almost solid
not with ice
that seasonal
but with the hard tile of age
dark
ungiving
unforgiving
paved congealed age

and the potty face looking on
sneers
"act your age"

i
act
because it is an act
in a drama
a comedy
ha-ha
the fool
i hang myself upside down
monkey of dreams
view the world
as if young

how cracked the face in the mirror
the road to hell