Wednesday, December 31, 2014

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

Saturday, December 6, 2014

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.

Helpless I do not know if good intentions prevail among the elected, among the appointed, leaving me apprehensive that the fate ...