staggering through the plethora of toxic thoughts stirring pilled-cocktails heartless shrews bend ears for pennies found in rattling pockets filled with spent dreams swallowed by deep lure where lust remains sleepless in profits drowned by sink scum shaking hands with the underworld of stained memories
new storms slush funds twist lies truth lies
- Details
- Written by: Don Baird
(Ekphrastic Haibun after Eudora Welty's Wildflowers)
Two girls pose side by side by the road,
one smiling shyly with a bundle
of wildflowers in her arms,
the other showing a faraway look.
Standing before the framed photograph,
two old women, each holding
a cane in their gnarled hands,
chat excitedly about the girls.
One says, “They are my classmates.
The smiling girl is Daisy.
I don’t remember the other one.”
Another adds thoughtfully,
“She looks like a hollyhock bud.”
Both laugh and walk to the next frame.
spring break
the antique wall clock
rewinds old-time music
- Details
- Written by: John Zheng
When the paramedic had finished his shift during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he saw the broken sparrow on top of a parked ambulance. He heeded yet another call and brought the bird home.
The bird gradually convalesced with gentle care from the whole family. When she could spread her wings for balance, she went outdoors and eventually joined a flock.
Quite often, the bird returns, drinks water from the familiar birdbath and tweets with family back and forth.
a seedless hull
on a cloud
in a puddle
- Details
- Written by: Pamela Garry