The Upper Crust - Hello Poetry

May 2020

Hadrian Veska

Dim Neon

The places there are that go forgotten
Through alleys at night down and to the left
Dim neon, wires, cracked pavement and smoke
Something always more obscure
Hidden further back and under
Than the most secret thing you know
The city turns in on itself at a point
Where places once known become strange and distant
As if despite their nearness
They've grown so very far
Ever churning and rearranging
As if with a mind of it's own
The city is restless
Stretching out that it might breathe
A cool breath of the still night air
Beneath the waiting stars

May 2020

L B

On Days like Today

On Days Like Today

On days
When the thrush curls his song
among the buds unfurling
Lilacs float their fragrance
Past the trees, among the bees, between the roofs
Only distance makes it bearable
to be

...so called
Spring
in the chimes of breeze
Bent by the force of life
in disbelief

of its always
leaving

behind

the apogee
Now, past--

The fatal
wound of spring

May 2020

Frances E McClelland

Night Echoes

Before us waits the purple night,
which sends its echoes far and wide--
Its wisdom paints a palette of stars,
which sleep amid the pale moonlight.

The night dissolves in lustrous beams,
like roses kissed by flowing rains--
And violets pressed within each page,
of sainted bibles from ancestral chains.

Hearts float among the stirring sounds,
releasing tales of pain and sorrow--
Then echoes reach to touch the soul,
in mystical waves caressing tomorrows.

If only the echoes of night would allow,
the cycle of life's defining story--
To cast the sunshine in heavenly light,
rebounding in secret their majestic glory.

May 2020

Ganesha Michael Shapiro

cold shoulders

Deposits of rain soothe the pain
And you complain
That no one cares about you
The way you'd like them to
We are feathers
In the wind
Blowing through time
And space
We have no memory
Of breathing
Only fingers that grasp
At whatever is left of our identity
What remains of the Sun
Before it's gone
Into the underworld
We are all falling stars and captive hearts
And I promise to let you in
Closer than any person
Has ever come before you
As long as you promise
To never tell anyone
These secrets
That we are born from firm
Yet impermanent collisions
So let's get lost
In disorganized apartment buildings
This chaos determines our thirst
When we are no longer wearing shirts
And love is a poem that hurts
Whenever you read it

Apr 2020

WL Schuett

Tragic Décolletage

As I sit down to
paint an image
That rolls through my eyes
like thunder through the valley.

Music all around
a ripple in the ether.
Used as a cats paw
from the misty East
to the dark veil
of midnight shadows .

Vinegar and honey .
Freedom our glory
entitlement our tragedy.
A broken anvil
of shadow men
to a fearful God .

We met at the twilight
of twilight .
As the waning moon
Floats on the slithering river.

Praying for vengeance
into the décolletage.
Mosaics of pain
and betrayal
inspiring me to create.

Apr 2020

WL Schuett

Vanguard

Failing grace ,
vapidlust in a
Vanguard of light .

A tolling bell
filling the hours
with the melody
of the color of art .

Moist green moss
on a deadfall log
jealousy in the age
of marrow.

Floating through the
eye of the wolf
into the farms ,
forests and fields .

Trying to see past
that fog on the mirror
to a beauty most desired.

To kneel in the water
and rise again born
to a new world .

A quickening of the undertow,
happiness as intense as pain
slips beneath the waves .

How do you sleep
when your dreams
cast shadows on
the innocent.

Fewer rewards
than number nine.
Flags in the fields
raised high over
forsaken vows .

The guarded moon
crested
the sliding, sad , singing dunes
and the sorrow filled bell
Tolled and tolled
and tolls still .