NEW WORK ON BARE
Grief
Nora Diday
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
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.