FARES, PLEASE    [Stefanie Bennett]

 

 

All journeys begin in the sleep-worn

Valley of naughts and crosses;

Double innuendoes – and

The price of a one-way ticket.

 

Odysseus, alter ego of the self

Ghosts in with ass and oxen

To warn, “Whatever you tell

Will be held against us”.

 

Surely! But, my armour was always

Loosely fitted; the beggar

Disguise overtly tight.

Have I confused you? That

 

Wasn’t my intention. Why – you could

Go back to

‘Next station’s yours’:

There at least I expound –,

 

‘Fares please!’

Mine is a life-pass.

 

 

 

THE ANGEL    [Stefanie Bennett]

 

 

Light the pipe

Of strife,

It will not

Harm you...

 

Peace, coiled

By a human-

Cloud

May lift

 

A million

Angry men

To “go”

- Tell it

 

Like a joke.

The “fear’s”[?]

... Natural.

 

 

 

SPOOF, IN PROGRESS   [Stefanie Bennett]

 

 

Quickly, Pablo! Invert the canvas... Upon us

Attests the ‘Book of the Dead’. *

Add crocus yellow

Spiked with garnet

To line her eyelash before

The flash of life fades.

Rouge, I tell you, won’t soften

The cheek. Instead

- Fashion the brow’s panorama

And dimple a linden reed

That pipes melodic.

 

Master of the cuneiform palette...

Let’s forfeit

The signature corner.

“Guernica”

And our Philadelphia

Vixen are

Companionable.

 

 

(*Muriel Rukeyser)

Bill Clinton, the first Black President,
During his tenure we got "Three Strikes,"
     Opening the door for the burgeoning Prison-Industrial Complex,
With African Americans receiving a disproportionate number of "likes."

 

     He also oversaw NATO expansion,
Gobbling up former Warsaw Pact members for the organization's lunch,
     Breaking promises made when the Cold War ended,
Intervention in non-members' business - all putting Putin's panties now in a bunch.

 

     Have we forgotten he failed to "take out" Osama?
Setting up 9/11 and the excuse for Bush 43's wars,
     Kissing his fiscally responsible handling of the deficit and debt goodbye,
All because the Lewinsky affair strained his relationship with the Gores!

 

     And then there's the repeal of Glass Steagall,
The roots of the Great Recession of 2008,
     Free flowing financing blowing bubbles, "lucky" seven years later,
Stocks flying high, deals done daily...Sound familiar? Same fate?

 

     Why in the world with many of today's problems stemming from the policies of his Administration,
Would Democrats nominate Hillary and get Bill back in the "twofer" deal?
     It takes a Clinton to finally clean up after one?
Knowing where the bodies are buried not enough to stamp "that woman" with the Presidential Seal!

 

Karen Ann DeLuca

THE DISTANT SUN       [Stefanie Bennett]

 

 

There’s no need to substantiate

The highs and lows

That expediency delivers –:

 

Like a spent postcard –,

 

Revival of The Ancients –,

 

An untitled sonatina

 

Or ...

 

The licensee means-testing

A solitary snapdragon

Thrashing

In the shade’s

Withered

Loop.

 

 

TOUCH       [Stefanie Bennett]

 

You say I’ve burgled

The heart,

Telescoped

The vision,

Conducted, made

Magic,

Of lineage!

 

This is an admission

I’ll not shy from –.

 

There was once

A carpenter

Who ‘stood

Accused’

... Knew what

These

Nails

 

Were for.

 

 

TALLY       [Stefanie Bennett]

 

They stepped lightly about

The indelible divide

- Past the voiceless harp

And into the parlour of days

 

Where a drift of incense

Encircled the hat-rack

And the begonia,

Grim and proper

                        Dropped

Its truce...

 

None came out.

None stayed.

 

 

IMMERSION    [Stefanie Bennett]

 

... A brief encounter with

The nonplussed society

 

Is as die-hard as the text

Of William Burroughs,

 

The bunion of a pre-

Darwinian rostrum

 

And the efflorescent

Mayan taciturn

 

That’s traded

Irritatingly bereft.

 

Instead –, let’s all be

Indebted to

 

The Fates’ unequivocal

Silver tongue

 

... And time’s

Wild honey.