Short Works for the Peripatetic Web Surfer

by Clement M. Satcher

Poetry is recognizable in literature
Figurative abstract as shown in art
Form, shape, and image purposed
On a page line after line main idea
Listing thought without elaboration
Do headings require a subheading
Transcend working plane, connect
An apt analogy can epitomize time
Neither Past, present, nor future is
Able to impede wisdom of dreams
Not what seen; it’s how you see it

by Michael Constantine McConnell

Dog-bard, a wall arose. Soon, a red, nude man-era stole Gail of deli, and, lo, my tit-net carts bade, “trap millions’ parts,” but a snag rose many fits, and I’d reward no cabs. Eve[n] Eve’s bacon drawer did nastify names, organs, a tub, straps. No ill-imparted, abstract-entity mold nailed foliage. Lots are named under a noose’s oral law - a drab god.

66(words)/259(letters)

The people are kind, but sad. Days are spent recording their stories, evenings lying on my cot fixed by the slow cloture of twilight.

Nights are filled with stars and dreaming
stories no one should ever tell.

by Michael Constantine McConnell

A small prayer
forgot how to fly,

clings to a giant
beanstalk, afraid

to be eaten
if it ever finds

the nerve to climb
the rest of the way.

by Persis M. Karim

I hate you
because you aren’t
my mother

and even though
you didn’t pretend
to be her, you gave
more of what
I needed.

And I hate you now
because I don’t’ know
how to hate her
and you aren’t
my mother.