NEW WORK ON BARE  

Grief

Nora Diday

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We sit on thin wooden chairs

facing a crucifix.

The song echoing through the hall

smells like loss to the four of us,

reminding us of the last time we were here.

She grips my hand tightly in her lap

while singing “Be not afraid.”

Her voice breaks,

but she continues singing,

holding high her quivering chin.

Storm

Sea

​

A storm is approaching

The waves are rising once more

After years and after roads

You can hear it in the songs

They stand next to each other once again

After years and after roads

They are neither in the past nor in the future

Even if we pass through the steppes

The streets all lead to the sea

After years and after roads

They stand next to each other once more

Hurt (Pantoum)

Macy Shaffer

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Opening the door,

She yearns for sleep,

Her heart to the floor,

She starts to weep.

She yearns for sleep,

And as she waits,

She starts to weep,

She shuts her gate. 

And as she waits,

Her emotions take over,

She closes her gate,

Her heart takes no lover.

Her emotions take over,

As she loosens her grip,

Her heart takes no lover,

Her tears start to drip.

Her heart to the floor, 

She knows this is the end,

Opening the door,

To heaven’s gates she ascends. 

A Poem for C

Kezia Lietzau

Allow me to ask you,

Because I care:

Could you pay me a visit?

Dinner or brunch, whatever you want.

Eternity passes with each breath

Free from you, yet I never thought

Going on absent could be so

Harrowing, blue and green.

I relive the past two decades

Just to remember you,

Kids for so long.

Little ones, where did you go?

My, I’m old as a birch tree;

Neptune rises for the thousandth time,

Only no one cares.

Please, dear ones, said I,

Quiet; don’t disturb.

Return, now I say:

Sleep under this roof again.

Tucana we can see from the window:

Under and over we see it go,

Veering through the sky like a river.

We must return, my children;

X-ray the past so we can see the

Youths that you used to be.

Zest we once had cannot be forgotten.

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