On Being Rejected by a Baby

by Don Schaeffer

When they are
eight months old
they temporarily attain
the ability to look
directly into your
internal record
of evil and good.

They accept you
and reject you as if
they were standing
behind the desk
of Puritan heaven.

Oh tiny Hannah
why did you spurn me
and pass your
darkened face my way?
I worry that
the neighbor woman
who brings about your smile
will record a
bigger deeper heart
than I.

Shuffled into Eden

by Dan Flore

Dan is 29 years old. He does poetry workshops for people with serious mental illness, lives In Pennsylvania. Dan has several poems in "Enthalpy."

striptease queen
missing her teeth
they're gold in heaven
who are you gonna run to
when your toenail polish
gets in the blind man's eye
I'll pray for you at the bridge
where everything
was shuffled into Eden
then to an insane
meteor broom
I will sweep your blood
stained spell book
clean