SE Reimer

Oct 2016

Nat Lipstadt

circumscribed circumstances circumspect 9/11

circumscribed circumstances circumspect

~

these then
the circumstances,
that circumscribe
my essentials

the surround-sound orb walls of choices
made and yet-to-be-made delimiting me,
making me wary of the unforeseen,
more circumspect of what I will someday have chosen

recall standing on the now crushed,
destroyed subway platform of the
Cortlandt Street Station,
debating

take this job or that

took the one but a crow mile fly away
(and not the one that didn't survive)

come that day,
me, audience observer then,, not one of the
death undefying unwilling circus performers, and heroes,

when I pass the covered up burial sight,
the many nearby and forever crinkly crape draped firehouses,
or open the drawer where
I have
saved the tidbits of that
particular day's memories walk home,

a covenant reaffirmed,
a circumcision of the soul renewed

a circumcision upon the soul,
the renewed cut, sheds, allows some light
into the circularity of life

9/11/16

true story...

Oct 2016

Joel M Frye

La Femme ******

We who live on the fringes
of the working-class
know her all too well.
A tulip of a child,
precociously blossoming
at eleven or twelve,
cute and acutely aware.
Never knowing her father,
her mother changing
boyfriends like fashion,
new each season.
Little girl's mind flush
with women's hormones,
she wraps herself around
the first small male kindness;
a good warm hug what she needs,
but has learned but one way
to express love.

She was maybe twelve when she became family; my heart broke for her, for I dared not hug her.

Oct 2016

Denel Kessler

Season's End

you will go your way
despite my protests
no use lamenting
what was never promised
the sun rides low the horizon
soon it will not clear the treetops
storms gather in the northern sea
needled wind to scattered seed
hoary frost on yellowed grass
dark leaves in mirrored puddles
a suspended death
crystalline and indeterminate
there is no fire hot enough
to stave off the first chill
of a careless winter
the numb hibernating sleep
soft gray melting days
the desperate wish
to regain summer

Hello my poet friends! What a lovely surprise to wake up to this blustery morning. Thank you for sticking with me through a crazy summer of sporadic posts - you are all wonderful. Much love!
: )

SE Reimer Oct 2016

a case for i drops

~

prelude.

did you know that English stands alone as a written language requiring the capitalization of the word "I"... yet makes no similar provision for “we” or “us; a sad statement of self inflation. it was after learning this that i abandoned the rule in my own poetry.

~

my i’s averted,
lowered, diverted,
reduced in size,
an exercise of
large proportions;
breaking down the me-isms,
finding room for we-isms,
to take the larger place;
create an i for seeing,
the case for simple,
smaller being;
no need to punctuate,
instead eliminate this
compulsion to inflate;
’tis my i-drop moment,
my i-reducing ointment,
these pupils are dilated,
deflating i and me,
enlarging we and thee;
finding that in i-reduction,
the eyes are widely opened,
thus to better see,
what i really need to be.