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