By: Cedric McClester

Should we become distracted?
By the way the president acted
Or the press attention he attracted
When he should have been redacted
Must we just ignore
Alll that went on before?
Like him threatening a war
On North Korean for sure

Should we just forget
The things he won’t admit?
Like Putin and other ****
Or the answers we usually get
He must think we’re ignorant
To the fact that he’s hell-bent
On disguising, what he meant
Or discovering his true intent

Does he really think we’re fools
Or maybe convenient tools
So he can break the rules
That they teach in ethic schools
Does he really think we’re blind
And don’t see him cross the line
Time and time after time
Or his kind of paradigm

Does he even care
That the public is aware
He is acting laissez= faire
Though he’ s getting quite a scare
From the Robert Mueller probe
He’s afraid he’ll be disrobed
As he’s placed under a strobe

























Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2017.  All rights reserved,

Your absence
laps
at my shore
like a
f o r g e t f u l tide;
some days
it stays
                                   out,
letting me
breathe,
letting me
be-
other days,
it makes up for this,
swamping me
in a
tsunami,
and all I
can do
is
keep my
eyes
trained on land.

You are the moon.
Please return soon.

"The act of molting or shedding an
                      outer cuticular layer."

I knew coming into blue,
recognized that
love colored my eyes too.
For days I was blind,
ached,
starved for loves sake--

Convinced that so
much was at stake!
I wrestled with desire
and hate,  
denied longing,
feared fate,
fought the need to mate,
then would compensate.

Irritable, I'd agitate.

I knew coming into blue
& embraced the devil too.
Writhed and wrestled
then shed you--
becoming something new.

By:  Evelyn Augusto

Why must we refuse what is divine
in each other?  
Why must we nail our lips shut
using our own teeth as though they were wooden pegs?

Instead, let us take each other in our mouths as though we were blind.  Savor and feel you in me and I…in you.   Taste and see.

Celebrate the salt of our labor, of my tears, of your love—
Recognize how silky desire is--
Know how thick loneliness is.  

Bring my hands to you and with your tongue trace their roughness, study the old wounds: read chapters of  my story.

Press the diamond of flesh at my hip to your lips and remember that once your own  hand rested there as I dreamed.   Feel how sharp that bone can be.

Now, let me chew on your despair. Wear it thin, spit out.

Let me navigate with this same mouth those parts of your body that you command to feel  when your heart can not.

We can be good and not be hungry.

We can swallow each other tonight, fall asleep full and satisfied like favored guests at a banquet, then sit down at the table again, tomorrow.


By:  Evelyn Augusto
        2017

What is real
What’s pretend
Go to hell
Come back again

Are we human
            Or
Wondering souls
Roaming the earth
Until we grown old

Making mistakes
Fulfilling dreams
Everything around you
May not be what it seems

The grass isn’t always greener
On the other side
It’s all about interpretation
Through someone else's eyes

Crystal waters
Golden white sand
Palm trees swaying
Listening to a band

Looking at something
Believing it’s real
Tangible items
You will always feel

Is it real or fantasy
Either way you look at it
You will see clearly now
When you close your eyes and BELIEVE

I wasn't  made with
an ambidextrous
spirit.  No, nor skilled
in simultaneously
gripping and letting go--
not trained, since
childhood, to do that
which my heart resists.

It's hard to hold on.

And when my chest
rattled like a
diamond snake--
and I was uncertain
of what was at stake.

I learned:
I am the bull's eye.
I am the stop sign.
I am the excuse
for his violence--
I am the story nobody
wants to hear or
change.

I am no longer me

but only that
gun shot
right here
to my middle.

By:  Evelyn Augusto. 2017

And you filled your mouth
with me, coated your words
with the savory flavor of us,  
then wore your tongue smooth  
against the stone of my pleasure.

And you taught our bodies
their purpose too,
drove the meaning of love
deep inside me until we both

understood the difference

between the rhythm
of our hearts beating...
and their singing.

By: Evelyn Augusto
2017