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Once Again
Mike Gullickson


The streetlight holds
the shadow where you
once were
it lingers on the pavement
like undissipated smoke
from a fire that burned
long ago.

You will catch the reference here -
the sly use of smoke and shadow.
You always caught such things
as if words hung on a mobile
in the air
you could reach and spin
anyway you chose.

Tonight I watch the streetlight
until dawn dims it
the stars parade from the sky
over the hill
to other parts of the world.
Places where you might be.

This morning as the sun
puts the day in motion.
I miss the smoke and shadow of you.

Drylongso
cynthia parker-ohene


she seen’t
mz cinda self-possessing
blackening windows at sittin’ up
she li/ke/ded sapphire wimmins
sassing dem duppies

she burned her crown of thorns
sent for from jesus’s estate
&
laid it at mz mary magdalene’s fi nal ity
without the holy ghost
she ain’t no sisyphus

back in the day she & her gurls dey broke jesus
out of dat cleft
he be washing her feet e tern ity