Community Poems
The Dream Patrol
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Willie Winkie lived in a land of magic, in the region called Butterfly Haven;
For Willie was a diminutive elf, like the violet blossoms, of purple fixation.
Willie and his beloved wife, Elvira, lived highly organized, pleasant lives;
For magic impels ways and customs to differ, like buds, as spring arrives.
Everyone called Willie Winkie, 'Wee,' since most elves were notably bigger;
But, he was Director of Dreams, scattering joys of plum night, with vigor.
Violence was completely unheard of, inside their peace loving community,
......
walkway inquisitions
by Jessica C
you pass me daily with your tumultuous style steps
never a tip-toe
only weighty and sure
I do not understand your uproar
among those less lofty
In their softer treads
as you rush through the
blues
reds
and greens
......
Silhouette
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Pine figures melting into the night
Back among the walls of water —
Reflect through porous beams
Day, frazzled with labour-lust
Casting smitten shadows —BLACK—of muted torsos;
Image of the ray-mirror, framing
The shrubs and the fallen iroko along desolate
Paths of a recently pacified village.
......
Festival
by Ken Ripley
Festivals can be lots of fun,
Especially when they are new
And what is offered nicely run.
Games, exhibits, and parades
And music by the score, all
Compete with booths of food,
The kind you see in fairs in fall:
Funnel cakes and turkey legs abound.
Visitors are drawn to streets
......
Rosemary's Wedding
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
This Sunday,
Before noon,
In my community church,
Wedding bells ringꓽ
Rosemary,
Daughter of our land,
Weds!
Grand invitations
......
Philadelphia, 6/25/25
by Michael Banning
This morning, a cardinal
lands on my back fence,
opens its beak.
Nothing.
Even the birds
save their songs
for weather worth singing about.
The papi store thermometer
......
Digital Matters
by Darris van-Hoxen
Ancient rites
forum fights
leeching thread
scorned parasite
LLM spam delight
Bump
keeps it in sight
Bump
snuffing out
......
The Miners' Psalm
by Darris van-Hoxen
Let it be known:
On this ground, soil beneath our feet,
we stand brightly—
unshaped by mana, unburdened by darkness.
Gavreck speaks, unadorned and unmolded,
no bearer of lowly wreaths,
or one whose legs bent to adversary,
Rather with, rending and sending.
......
African Night
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
Mother of stars,
friend of the moon,
it is often quiet but for its own heartbeatꓽ
the rhythmic sentence pronounced
in one benign-hammering syllable,
which pounds away hostile darkness
laid bare by the wakeful heavens
whose ears listen to tales from
old folks passed on to a glowing age,
and proverbs that leave one and all in awe.
......
Night Watch (for Rembrandt)
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
The stars have descended a little lower, to keep us —
My kinsmen and I —company on this night watch
On a newly roused African night.
We filch a little bit of the effulgence of the waking moon,
Reluctant, with the invasion of jealous clouds, their plumes
Fragile with inconsistency.
We rely on the luminescence of each other’s eyes and the trust
In our hearts
Tinder, broken by flying flickers of fireflies,
Shine through the breath of darkness, dis-virgining the chunky yolk
......
