MY WIFE AND I WERE DISTURBED

by Kevin Boyce

 

while watching the nightly news 

by a noise coming from outside.

Thunk                 thunk                   thunk

 

A catbird in our rhododendrons 

had declared war on his reflection in

our basement window. Each time 

his attack was repelled by an equal 

and opposite force. 

Thunk                  thunk                   thunk

 

He could not be deterred from defending 

his homeland from this imaginary foe.

Something had to give in the battle 

between this birdbrain and glass pane.

 

I covered the window with cardboard

to curtail his instinctual onslaught 

and save him from an early demise.

My wife and I went back to the news.

 

In August of 1914, soldiers enlisted 

in the War to End All Wars, assured

that the conflict would end by Christmas. 

Four more years and 15 million souls would pass 

before the close of this grand adventure.

 

Then 2003 brought Bush on the boat with his banner

prematurely exclaiming “Mission Accomplished.”

The Iraq War lasting a mere eight more years

after victory was secured.

 

Vladimir Putin invaded an independent Ukraine confident 

of conquest within months. Here we are four years later.

 

Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, 2026

with Israel and the US attacking Iran certain that 

they could not resist. Mission accomplished.

 

Thunk                  thunk                   thunk

 

 

 

Kevin Boyce is a poet, photographer, children’s book author, and lifelong resident of New England. He volunteers in his hometown, leading a community-sponsored contest and publication for emerging authors. Kevin’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in ONE ART, Nostalgia, The New Verse News, The Broken Teacup, Discretionary Love, The Poetry Lighthouse, and elsewhere.

MAHLER'S NINTH SYMPHONY

by John David Muth

 

Alone for the first time in months, 

I sink into the strings 

of an adagio, 

the final movement 

of Mahler's Ninth. 

 

I listen to this piece  

on solemn occasions: 

the loss of girlfriends I have loved, 

the death of my mother. 

It grieves for me,  

expresses what I cannot, 

even when I’m by myself. 

 

How did he feel  

as the subject of a dying empire, 

witnessing a way of life ready to end? 

I am beginning to understand. 

He died three years before the Great War, 

never read of poison gas or barbed wire 

never lived to see Austria crumble 

never saw the bread lines 

of the Great Depression 

the rise of fascism  

the murder of his family and friends. 

Maybe he was lucky. 

 

The violins wail  

and I think of my country,  

hundreds of thousands dead 

economic collapse 

leaders inept or insane. 

I am almost glad  

those I lost years before 

cannot see what we have become. 

 

The coda lingers: 

the last complete thoughts 

of a dying man who didn’t want to die. 

Resignation fades to silence 

the old CD stops spinning 

stairs creak from footsteps. 

My wife is back from her walk. 

I hide my red eyes 

in feigned sleep.

John David Muth was born and raised in central New Jersey. He has been an academic advisor at Rutgers University for twenty years. His latest book Dreams of a Viking Wedding (Aldrich Press) was published this year. 

YPRES

by Howie Good                            
                                      
                                            for Sarah M. & Tom C.

Tyne Cot cemetery on the Ypres Salient, Belgium.

Despite
a cold
misty rain

poplars
stand
at attention

as

we wander
jet-lagged

down rows
& rows
of gravestones

40,000
stubby
white teeth

bared


Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the full-length poetry collections Lovesick (Press Americana, 2009), Heart With a Dirty Windshield (BeWrite Books, 2010), and Everything Reminds Me of Me (Desperanto, 2011), as well as numerous print and digital poetry chapbooks, including most recently Love Dagger from Right Hand Pointing, To Shadowy Blue from Gold Wake Press and Love in a Time of Paranoia from Diamond Point Press.