BLOOD OF TIME

by Steve Zeitlin

pierced by a missile, M16 pellet,

arrow, slingshot, or spear, 

 

this time on Ukrainian soil

a dying soldier, 

twisted hands upon on his torso, 

seeks to thwart the going of his life, 

struggles to hold his insides in,

as the blood of thirty, forty, fifty unlived years

oozes from between his desperate fingers –

 

drowning his high school ring of love, 

his wedding and his children—

 

a universal soldier’s sacrifice—

the sacred blood of time. 

Steve Zeitlin is the Founding Director of City Lore, New York City’s Center for Urban Folk Culture, and co-founder of the Brevitas poetry collective. He the author of a volume of poetry, I Hear American Singing in the Rain, and twelve books on America’s folk culture. In 2016, he published a collection of essays, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness with Cornell University Press.  In 2022, he published JEWels: Teasing Out the Poetry in Jewish Humor and Storytelling (JPS/U. of Nebraska Press).

WHILE YOU ARE LIGHTING UP ON 4/20, I’M SERVING DECADES IN PRISON FOR SELLING WEED

a found poem
by Gordon Gilbert

after an April 20, 2023 Truthout op-ed written by Edwin Rubis

from a federal prison in the hills of Alabama  

Author’s note: Edwin Rubis has served over 24 years of a 40-year sentence in federal prison for a conviction on marijuana charges. 

Editor’s note: April 20, or 4/20 in its calendar denotation, is a holiday celebrated by many weed-smokers both in the United States and around the globe. 

Gordon Gilbert is a poet and playwright living in NYC's west village.

CONFLUENCES IN SEPTEMBER, 18 MONTHS OF LOSS

by Mark Danowsky

Fighting a Losing Battle 8, a print by Alexis Lekat at Saatchi Art

It was so nice to read Butler revisiting Butler—

their change to they for our times

* 

We let some people off so easy

& others we will forever push to the limit

* 

Waiting on the next check

for survival

* 

We are losing our birds

& much more than I know how to notice

* 

I want to save our homeless

more than I want to save children abroad 

* 

The people I know are not pleased

with my ethical quandaries

* 

My city’s beverage tax is abysmal

when we’re debating if 200K or 400K means rich

* 

A credit card notification informs me 

my address falls in a natural disaster location

* 

All signs point to no one coming for aid  

* 

I know it’s tempting to pretend

the worst might be over in 6 to 8 months

* 

Try 10 years of losing

only to lose the nexus of all your efforts

* 

Let the record show I tried

Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Senior Editor for Schuylkill Valley Journal, Poetry Craft Essays Editor for Cleaver Magazine, and a Regular Contributor for Versification. He is author of the poetry collection As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press) and JAWN forthcoming from Moonstone Press.

ON HEARING JOE BIDEN SPEAK IN 1971

by Jane Patten

What did I care of

Fiscal fairness

Divided among

The three counties of

Little Delaware,

With its chicken on a banner,

Its battered boardwalks,

And soybeans everywhere?

 

Someone tapped me on the shoulder:

An elderly aide, a kindhearted sage

Who needed to impart

Something worthy to a jaded juvenile:

Quiet, please.

Listen carefully.  

This man is going to be President—

Some day.

 

So I listened

And remembered his name:

And waited

Long enough to know

That for some of us 

Destiny is late in coming

But just as sure, just as strong,

Needed more now than then.

 

For numbered years are nothing

When one can last forever and

Four can be disaster:

For fifty can be calming fate

To this time and 

To this place.

After retiring and moving to Huntsville, Jane Patten decided to write about her adventures thus far, including growing up in Delaware and her career as a teacher in rural Georgia. She enjoys traveling, creative writing, and spending time with family. Her poetry has been published in Outloud HSV: A Year in Review for 2017, 2018, and 2019.