Saturday, March 12, 2022

Lynn White

wonderland by Imani Tolliver

Day Dreaming


I close my eyes 

and listen

to the first sounds

of spring.

I close my eyes 

and listen

to the insects.

I hear their fly past

and their warm settling.

Sometimes they will alight on me

as if they wish to examine

this strange creature,

this lone interloper 

in their world.

I open my eyes 

when I feel them

so that I can admire

their beauty

and strangeness

before they move on,

flying

or crawling

and leave me alone again.




loving you is easy by Imani Tolliver

May Queen


They crowned her the queen of May,

the little girl.

Chose her for her purity. 

Pure and white and smiling.

Unblooded.

Golden curls

held by red ribbons,

and entwined with flowers

topped with sweet smelling may.

Spring is here,

you see.

New shoots springing into life,

so we’re ready to be

reborn and ready to play

the game.

Ready for the circle.

Ready to go

round and round again.

Like the dancers she watches

weaving their ribbons round

the maypole.

The maypole phallus they’ve planted 

in the ground and

bedecked with ribbons.

Red and white.

Red and white ribbons of menstrual blood 

and semen.

Round and round

She watches from her throne.

Round and round.

Then come the Morris Men.

Bells jangling their presence.

Sticks clashing with their power.

Flags waving

to announce 

their virility.

They crowned her the queen of May,

the little girl.

A crown of sweet blossom

and hidden thorns.


First Published by Community Arts Ink, Reclaiming Our Voices, 2015




violet by Imani Tolliver

To The Passing Of The Nightingale


Where are the songs of spring?

Aye, where are they?

Well, Mr K,

they are harder to find

than they were in your day.

Gone with the nightingale,

Gone with the meadows,

the hedgerows,

the woods,

The habitats lost, 

destroyed.

Destroyed like the food

that people call pests.

Predated. 

Predated by farmers, 

one way or another,

the countryside’s guardians, 

that’s what they say.

The spring singing has ended,

almost over and done.

Aye, you might well ask, Mr K

The singing is not as it was

in your day.


First published in Anti Heroin Chic, August 2017 

Friday, March 11, 2022

Jackie Chou

love grows by Imani Tolliver

Lullaby of Spring


You hate me.

My soft rays

and my breezes

only caress the surface 

of your face.

My useless flowers

do not quell your hunger.

You miss her

whose powerful gale

sways the trees

and stirs the rivers

the music of her hail

falling like knife-blades 

into the soft belly

of the night.

Imani Tolliver

 

wonderland
Multimedia; watercolor, graphite, color pencils 8 inches x 10 inches 
2021



loving you is easy
Multimedia; watercolor, graphite, color pencils 8 inches x 10 inches 
2021 



violet
Multimedia; watercolor, graphite, color pencils 8 inches x 10 inches 
2021 



love grows
Multimedia; watercolor, graphite, color pencils 8 inches x 10 inches 
2021



Imani Tolliver (she/her) is an award-winning poet, artist, educator, and producer. She is the author of Runaway: A Memoir in Verse. 

She is a graduate of Howard University where she received the John J. Wright Literary Award, served as Poet Laureate for the Watts Towers Arts Center, and was awarded literary fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and George Washington University. 

Imani received a Certificate of Congressional Recognition by the U.S. House of Representatives for her work as the Cultural & Fine Arts Supervisor for the City of Buena Park and a Certificate of Recognition by the City of Los Angeles for her work as a promoter, host, and publicist in support of the literary arts in Southern California. 

Rooted in social justice, Imani has curated and produced a wide portfolio of arts and cultural programming that celebrates, reflects, and amplifies the voices of diverse communities. These programs have included art festivals, poetry readings, concerts, community theater, youth theater, and special events for large municipalities in Southern California. 


Joe Grieco

Double Down by Dig Wayne

Message To Kyiv


Dear Citizen

Press your face to the wet and broken glass that was a window


It’s a pallid snow dumped like crazy on Ukraine

Stupid now to point the finger


The hanging of your children in the arbor was both unfortunate and silly


Mushrooms will pop through the lawn tomorrow

Which are poison?

Which are not?

Only guys like us would try to eat them all


The Republic melted like a snowman in Spring thaw

Yours was a crime of blind contentment

Forget what you think you saw

Now that you’ve stopped resisting, peace is back

And it’s going to be fantastical


Your pal,

The Jackal


Mary Mayer Shapiro

Mummy Life by Dig Wayne

The Cycle of Seasons

Spring comes yearly with unpredictable weather, warm, cool, new life rejuvenating, hibernation over, creation revitalization. bees search for nectar, pollinating plants, making honey, seedlings taking roots, leaves begin to bud on trees, flowers budding, blooming, birds building nest, laying fertile eggs, butterflies laying eggs, caterpillars spinning cocoons,

Summer occurs in slowly, trees produce leaves, bird’s eggs begin to crack, baby birds escape the shells, bees become more productive, butterflies emerge from the cocoons,

Summer flees in a blink of an eye, fall comes forward, beginning the mourning process. Leaves die and change colors, baby birds develop into adulthood, fly away, blooming flowers wither. Bees go back to their hive.

Winter arrives with snow from the sky, encompassing the land, insulating the forage.

Spring has returned. Snow melts, ice thaws, birds return, bees search for nectar and pollinate, seedlings grow into trees, flowers bud and bloom, butterflies lay eggs, birds build their nest and lay fertile eggs,

Forward we go through the seasons A flower pokes out of a crevice of a rock, a seedling sprouts from an unoccupied soil, dew covers the ground with moisture. The cycle repeats,




New York Doorknob by Dig Wayne

Justice Prevails

Carl Turner was sentenced to serve 50 years for a crime he did not do. The District Attorney wanted to win at all cost. His lawyer was unprepared and did not defend him properly.

Carl had friends that knew he was innocent. Every week they visited him in prison. Maria, a robust woman almost six feet tall and weighing over four hundred pounds, and Sandy, a five-foot three inches woman of average size. They would come and stay for half an hour. This was their routine every week. They were a comical sight. As time went on, no one paid any attention to Carl, who was small in stature.

Every week, Maria and Sandy would drive to an old farmhouse, get dress, change the license plates and drive to the prison.

The plan was ready and when the time was right, the daring rescue would take place.

As they sat in the room with the other prisoners and their family, a commotion diverted the attention of the guard. As Maria stood up, Carl quickly crawl under the table and into the long dress of Maria’s and filled the vacuum. Sandy helped Maria with her coat and both women walked out the door.

As Maria got into the back seat of her car, Carl slipped out from under the dress into a sleeping bag on the floor. Sandy went into the front seat and quietly drove away.

They went to the old farmhouse. Maria and Sandy took off their disguises, (dresses, wigs, platform shoes and license plates), and put them in a suitcase. They changed the license plates back to the original ones, put magnetic business signs back on the car and drove away. Tom and Paul continue their life knowing that justice prevails. The phantom Maria and Sandy were never found.

Carl changed his appearance, took the suitcase, and climbed into a family car going cross country. Carl was dropped off five hundred miles away with a new identity. With a spring in his step, the fantasy of freedom was real.

Over one percent of the people in prisons are wrongfully convicted, among them that are sentenced to death. The District Attorney is only interested in winning.




Static Cling by Dig Wayne

The Old Bed

Time was when the mattress was new. The tensile strength held it firm. The bride and groom dressed it in satin sheets, pillow and quilts. The occupants spoke of dreams to come of future events. They talked about their childhood, their parents and relatives. How life was in the “old country” for their parents and how things changed.

As time past on, the children would come into the bed. The parents would read fairy tales and progress to age-appropriate stories. The father would make up jungle stories where a python would wrap around a human. The person would take a knife, blade facing out and the snake would cut itself.

The children would come in Sunday mornings and talk about things they would do that day as a family.

When the children were little, they would jump on the bed, testing the tensile strength. Eventually, the mattress would sag, the springs would lose the formed and had to be replaced. And the memories that were stored in the springs would be taken away to another place.

At first the mattress was lonely, then life was renewed. Mice would live within the mattress, between the springs. Insects of all types would reside within. The possums, raccoons and even cats would sleep on top. New memories were forming. The mattress became alive again. It was no longer loss or forgotten. The mattress spring back to life and fantasy regenerated.


Carl Stilwell AKA CaLokie

THE STORY OF EVERYTHING* 

There was no "before" the beginning of our universebecause once upon a time there was no time** 

Before the moment the cosmos began 

there was no OUTSIDE 

The only place there was  

was INSIDE 

A very long time ago, the universe simply— 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP bam bom BOOM—  burst into being 

An event which we call the big bang 

It was just a very tiny, ultra-hot fog of energy 

Then it expanded— 

The universe simply inflated into EXISTENCE  

From smaller than an ATOM to about the size of an orange

in less than a TRILLIONTH of a second 

Within 100 seconds, it was as big as our solar system

trillions of miles across 

While this was happening, the pure energy of the cosmosbegan to cool and create MATTER in the form of countlesstrillions of SUBATOMIC PARTICLES—the first stuff there ever wasThe same kind of stuff which makes us 

The rest were made of the opposite of matter—ANTIMATTERWhen the two encounter, they destroy each other in a flash of energy

Matter matters  

Nothing matters 

Yes, it does  

No, it doesn’t  

Beyond doubt  

No way 

Yes way  

Negative 

Positive  

Nonexistence 

Existence  

Nothing 

Something  

Fortunately, there was just a bit more MATTER than ANTIMATTERJust one in a billion particles of stuff survived 

Which was lucky for us, because that residue Is what 

our present-day universe is made of 

When the cosmos was 10 minutes old, It was alreadythousands of light-years in diameter 

After that, everything spread out  

and cooled for about 330,000 years 

When, finally, the fog cleared,  

the lights of the universe were switched on 

and before you knew it— 

Galaxies filled with stars orbited by  

Planets orbited by 

Moons 

And on Mother Earth emerged 

Algae 

Plants  

Animals 

Us 

Mother Earth rotates on her axis 24 hours 

Morning, afternoon, evening and night 

She orbits the sun 365 and 1/4th days 

Spring, summer, fall and winter 

East, South, West and North 

Infant, youth, adult and elder 

The sun our Mother revolves around is one of  

100–400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

which is one of  over two trillion galaxies

whirling around supermassive

black holes located at their their cores 

95% of the universe is dark matter and energyGalaxies, stars, planets, plants, animals and usmake up only 5% of the visible universe 

All this matter of mind boggling size  

had to be built 

atom  

by  

atom 

The Dine people call the universe we see 

and the one we don’t 

Father Sky


* Stephan Hawking from film documentary, Into the Universe

With Stephen Hawking

**John D. Barrow 

Father Sky and Mother Earth

Jack G Bowman

Yellow Tin Hat by Dig Wayne

Culmination of April


His head swims dreamlike through all he knows

phrases short and poignant, echo on the left side of his brain

words he stores, that create a foundation upon which stands

his ‘inmost self’

he leans, then sits

the ideas still coming

a barrage

 

far inside,

a long, dead seed cracks

a nucleus begins to emerge

sends out tendrils

arteries of living

essence

a new season of spring

a wellspring

for his

ninth stage of man.

Robert Fleming

Sherman Way Gold by Dig Wayne

Spring Haiku


grass springs eternal

second rabbit coming came

trail round brown pellets


spring break breaks Palm Springs

wet T-shirt survival contest

school’s out forever


spring board springs tucked flip

diving board springs cannon ball

room sent bored springs screams



Street Wreath by Dig Wayne

fifth-day & sixth-day collisions


u made an inside to keep me out

i flew in to make a fly-dome 

b 4 u get ur swatter think

twice b 4 u swat me

4 our dance is on

u sway ur arms &

i waltz my wings

if fly b gone 

no bird nor frog

2 b prey 4 & up UP 

the food chain until

ur hen is thin

2 make ur chicken fat 

drop ur swatter & 

leave the water-pools still & 

fly will egg offspring overnight



Green Spirals by Dig Wayne

a lime green thong is bursting out all over


your black rainproof cover is soot gray

pink feather dusting for the end-dust man

your wheels as dull as an un-reflecting mirror

lubricate your wheels with WD-40 &

KY Jelly squirts on your bearings eazes your roll

roll you to the patio


Saturday pm ravenous carnivores arrive

un-shirt & pose pecks on the patio

Tom turns on your burners &

burns beef burgers & buns

all barbecue season your host consults Ms. Manners

to host the proper barbecue


the host prays Peter likes my coleslaw

Mary burns his hand on the grill

your host changes into a white nurse uniform 

with a diamond cap & mends Mary's burn

by melting margarine all over Mary

Please Paul poke me with a greazy spatula

Phillip spill Budweiser over your T-shirt & shorts

Pedro un-pant & let your host polish you 

in the laundry tub with a brillo pad


such a sweet sweet barbecue fantazy baby


Angela M Franklin

Ekphrastic art based on poem below

Ties that Bind

by Ronna Magy


1971. Dee and I pull up long answering service cords. 

Plug them into the board.

Circle Answering Service. May I help you? we say. 

A buck seventy-five an hour. 

For this we don blue aprons.

Work through the night.

Answer plumbers’, electricians’, and doctors’ phones.

Take messages.

Connect emergency calls. 


In the bowels of the Hotel San Diego 

where we work downtown, 

uniformed sailors slouch in outer doorways. 

Hey baby they taunt. 

Look us over 

up and down.

As we open glass doors.

Walk inside. 

Go to work.


Telephone cords stretch ‘round our lives. 

Dee and I are friends. 

Go to movies together. 

Eat popcorn.

Giggle about dresses and nails.

Things girls gossip about. 

Ways to style our hair. 


We plan to room together. 

Discuss the apartment where we’ll live, and

moving in.

Her old couch, my kitchen table and wooden chairs.

The objects of life.

Colors of the bedroom.

Where we’ll each have a bed. 

Stretch the connection from her place downtown 

to mine in Golden Hill. 

A few more miles of telephone wire.


That moment over dinner when I tell her 

I’m lesbian. 

Cords in her throat tighten. 

She stammers. 

Can’t allow a friend of hers 

would be anything other than straight. 

Her blue eyes, sprayed hair, polished nails 

still in place.

Stripes down her blue dress twisting 

just a bit more 

to the right. 


Lorelei Kay


Wisteria Frenzy


Vines veer skyward

           spiraling on lattice walls

                     curling, climbing aloft 


Tendrils twist toward sunlight

          dancing counterclockwise

                  at spring’s frantic pace 


Blossoms burst and sway

         flutter in morning breeze

                   perfuming garden air


Purple pulses outward

 a hundred peteled fingers                                                                      

                       wave enchanted welcomes


Multi mini blues 

             lavender lilac and mauves                                              

                       hum rhapsodies in bloom


Spring sings with wisteria’s

floral chorus 

                     clamoring for celebration


Previously published in  Eucalyptus & Rose Literary Magazine 


       


Jesse Rey Tovar

Sketch by Geoffrey Levitt

DBZ Fantasies


Manny has had multiple fantasies upon watching Dragon Ball Z, y'all. Here are some he has shared with out-of-town pals this Spring:

1. My DBZ fantasy? To revive those who still have that faint heartbeat while they are critically injured with a sensu bean. 

2. My DBZ fantasy is to wish back anyone I know personally who have gone too soon, or those who my family love so dearly with 7 Dragon Balls.

3. My DBZ fantasy? Change the color of my hair at will. 

4. My DBZ fantasy is to press a Capsule button to access my vehicle.

5. My DBZ fantasy? Have superstrength to defeat those who seem unbeatable.

6. My DBZ fantasy is to have a cure for the contagious Heart Virus, just as we yearn for a cure for cancer. For now, we have a vaccine for the contagious Coronavirus, which we inject periodically to hopefully end the global Covid pandemic.

Manny believes his DBZ fantasies formulated in his mind after basking in the colors of nature that sit and observe all the atrocities inflicted on our planet we have brought upon ourselves.


Don Kingfisher Campbell


Of Knowledge

 

It looks like a fist,

red hot and ready.

 

It smells like water

from a petrified spring.

 

It feels like the skin

of an intimate ankle.

 

It sounds like an empty room.

Fall, it could be a knock.

 

It tastes like leaving,

sweet sand on my tongue.

 

A waterfall of teeth marks unearth

the road to the core.






Analogy Planet
 
Clouds race like dogs over land 

There's a pot of steamy nimbus being cooked 
rising from a hot pool surrounded by snow 

Geyser springs are beautiful open sores 

Undersea thermal bubbles endless cotton candy 

Fire and water give birth to crusty daughter 

Like a star being born in steam 

Liquid rock cools hardens like chocolate shell 

Is a volcano simply a giant pimple 

When it blows there goes fiery pus 

Boiling lava might as well be lighted ice cream 

Millions of trees get knocked over like pick-up sticks 

Volcano blown, now the scab is much smaller 

Volcano dead not unlike stone sculpture 

Mountainous fingers feel their way across earth 
without moving more than inches a year 

Big ants run get squashed by falling buildings 

Earthquake fault merely seams on a baseball 

Maybe a waterfall is just a runny nose






Olympic Questions

Ski jumper, you know you look like a flying
squirrel when you spring in the sky, don’t you

Luge (and Skeleton), how does it feel to be a bullet
rocketing down an open barrel (head first)

Alpine skiers, are you speeding down that hill like
someone who forgot to turn off their car alarm

Snowboard racers, do you enjoy being a gang
of four hopping over speed bumps made of snow

Cross country, why do I think of you as a human
Hot Wheel forced to row two sticks up snowy track

Speed skaters, you seem like a hip grandfather
clock when you swing your pendulum arm, no

Women’s hockey, two Chinese dragons guard
the net, is that a powerful mindset, or what

Skating pairs, do you love flinging
your partner in the air (I’ll wait)

Curling, who can scrape the smooth clean
kitchen floor of ice most efficiently

Slope style, do you think you live to twist and
twist and twist and twist again

Bobsled, isn’t this an amusement park ride
(sure looks like one)

Ski cross, you appear to start like a penguin
and turn into a shark with fins, right

Figure skaters, why is the Russian girl so
triple axel athletic over the others

Mass start, you begin together as a centipede,
yet seek to split apart for individual victory, yes

Coco

Epiphany I wish I had a poem for you one that was lyrical and sweet  A poem filled with love and joy  that blossoms like flowers in Spring  ...