Mark Danowsky

In Lassitude

And then you’re banging your knee

against the hardwood desk 

tapping your fingers off beat 

the way parishioners clap out of time 

in some churches—just watching

this tempo picks up and you 

use your knuckles and elbows on the knickknacks

scattered around you—still keeping 

a close eye on the cream lightened coffee 

cooling down all at once as it displaces 

in the manner you fold linen—bringing the corners

together and yet introverting

as only a thing that is not solid can—breaking 

to lift the yellow mug and sip

then placing it back on the desk to discover

movements no longer shift its meniscus 

and your part in this now anomaly is called 

into question.

Brian Beatty

Meditation in the Key of Dust

Those stones along your passway

sing and shout when kicked.

You walk on — in slower circles.

Every direction in this lost town

is another crossroads leading back.

Michael Ceraolo

Preamble of the Constitution of the Knights of Labor:  Twenty-First Century Edition

"The recent alarming development

and aggression of aggregated wealth . . .

render it imperative . . .

that a check should be placed upon its power

and upon unjust accumulation,

                                             and

a system adopted which will secure

to the laborer the fruits of his toil;

                                                and

as this much-desired object

can only be accomplished

by a thorough unification of labor . . .

we submit to the world the object sought

to be accomplished by our organization,

                                                          calling

upon all who believe in securing

'the greatest good to the greatest number'

to aid and assist us . . ."

Erren Geraud Kelly

Donna

Who is the light

Rising

From a singer’s

Voice

Who is the feel of

Loose diamonds

In my hands

Who is beauty

If it could be defined

She is a balloon

I

Let go