Late Afternoon in Early Spring

             by Thomas Zimmerman

Sun’s finally out,

like God, or someone,

took the lid off the pot

we’ve been steeping in.

We can breathe.

Finish your tea,

we’ll walk the dog

and let our looser

molecules drift into

the trees and clouds

and not-so-distant river:

our re-entry

into the swirling

elemental world.

 

Bio:Thomas Zimmerman  teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows Review https://thebigwindowsreview.com/ at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His poems have appeared recently in dadakuku, Sage Cigarettes, and The Unconventional Courier. His latest book is the poetry chapbook The House of Cerberus(Alien Buddha Press, 2022). Website:  https:/thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com  Twitter: @bwr_tom   Instagram: tzman2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE OLD MAN AND THE LAKE

        by John Grey

 

The old man is drawn to the lake.

He loves the stroll through tall pines,

the soft give of needles on the trail.

And the air off the water

is gilded by sun.

He can’t breathe enough of it.

 

By the shore,

his bones seem to crack less,

his shoulders straighten,

his legs don’t need keeping an eye on.

 

And a turtle basks on a rock.

Small fish rise and fall

like eye-lashes in the shallows.

There are no ghosts.

They must make way for living creatures.

 

Everything here,

from the blades of grass,

to the dragonfly squadrons,

feels back at its beginning,

so why can’t a man

who’s lived eighty years,

do away with the last seventy.

 

He sits on the bank,

at the edge of the shade,

dips toes in the coolness.

His nerves light up.

His heart gets the message.

 

It’s perfect here.

Belonging takes no effort.

Tadpoles gather in a floating algae island.

He assembles where he happens to be.

 

Bio: John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Washington Square Review and Floyd County Moonshine. Latest books, "Covert" , "Memory Outside The Head" and "Guest of Myself" are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review and Open Ceilings. 

 

 

 

DARING SPRING

    by  Diane Webster

 

Trees bristle porcupine quills

daring the spring to approach –

double dare you!

 

Then leaves unfurl

tiny hands reaching

for April sunshine.

 

The grove calms

into waves of hello

tickling the wind

giggling through branches.