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Your secret wrenched
                                              my breath
                    away from my lungs blithe
    their unguarded life

left in its place a field
    of burning pride, singed tips
of innocence i felt for you,     glowing
    flowers in the fire

    my stomach jammed with jagged
                    stones which ground and bore
           against themselves as if making meal

      all these things until whispers
of surrender contrived
   nests within the eaves
  of my torrid mind

and with it returned the ease
of a sleeping child.
  Mar 2016 Mary Winslow
Daniel Ospina
Angel wings blotched with ink
Pluck the feathers, let them sink
Down the depths of fleeting pleasure
What is good? Subjective measure.
Whitest linen hemmed with gold
Lined with rubies, red and bold
Dropped in mud, in realm of swine,
Even Lamb with sinners dined.
You who claim to be righteous
Free from blame, always cautious
To never break a moral code
But fail to love and the self erode.
Take the time to introspect
To empathize and project
A light for those who’ve lost their way,
For in their shoes you walked for days.
Soles wore thin, where to begin?
Strive to make sorrow grin.
  Mar 2016 Mary Winslow
Daniel Ospina
Victory pose upon the mountain top
Where eagles soar at your level.
Arms extended as you let the wind
Celebrate your ascent to greatness.
The climb, treacherous,
But ultimately rewarding.
Take in the panoramic view of
The world splayed before you,
Far as the eye can see.
All of its secrets revealed.
Vast oceans to your left,
Rolling hills to your right,
The tundra left behind.
The sun, humbled by your presence,
Hides in the hills, orange and bashful.
Victory, oh sweet victory.
There’s nothing left to conquer.
Now what?
  Mar 2016 Mary Winslow
Daniel Ospina
Fountain of youth runs in his veins,
The man who lives in Sycamore Keep.
His circadian clock had come to a halt,
Rather than rejoice, he sullenly weeps.
You would think that immortality is
The pinnacle of human existence,
All the time in the world and not a
Single malady to be of any resistance.
Yet there he sulks, the ageless man,
Cauterized by the turn of each century,
As loved ones breathe their last and
Become a parcel of his fractured memory.
But that is just the shell of his woes,
For even with all knowledge amassed,
He’s utterly aghast with the state of the
World unwilling to learn from the past.
Every crook and cranny explored,
Every experience well savored,
Now monotony for millennia to come,
His longing to live has ebbed and wavered.  
I was told by the man of Sycamore Keep
That immortality is a curse so alluring.
Indeed, a hundred cultivated years is
Much better than hollow eons securing.
But sir, think of all the riches you’ve accrued
And mastery of all science and philosophies.
Who wouldn’t want to have the time to mark
The world and purge it from all its atrocities.
Say no more, interrupted the ageless man,
I applaud your idealism and optimistic delusion,
But you’re missing one essential element --
Even as immortals, we’d still be only human.
And to be human, is to be fallible. Let’s just say
That immortal fallibility will engender no good.
It'd be best to truncate our lifespan for the
Sake of our survival, yes truncate we should.  
And that’s all I heard from the man of Sycamore Keep,
Who went on his way to his millennial weep.
  Mar 2016 Mary Winslow
Keith Wilson
Spring  the  great  awakening.
After  the  winter  slumbers.
Everything  springs  to  life.
Animals,  birds, and  all
the  wonderful  spring  flowers.
Trees  slowly  starting  to  bud.
Even  humans  start  to  stir,
out  of  a  winter  trance.
A  truly  magical  time.

Keith  Wilson.  Windermere.  UK.  2016.
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