What the Wind May Do

        by  Julian D. Woodruff

 

The wind’s come out to exercise today.

It tests itself: how long can it exhale?

With steady breath it makes the trees obey:

They bend while waiting for the rush to fail.

Tiring of that pursuit, the steady pace

Becomes a series of percussive bursts.   

‘Though rudely shoved, limbs soon regain the place

That’s theirs when air is evenly dispersed.

All this is but routine, a little game

That breezes play to keep themselves in shape,

So that when Nature knows the time has come

She can unleash a force of such ill fame

That none—branch, tree, or forest—will escape;

Nor we, green suburb down to grayest slum.

 

Bio:  Julian D. Woodruff divides his time between western New York State and Toronto, writing short fiction and poetry, much of it for children. His work is most recently represented in WestWard Quarterly and on the websites of Aphelion Webzine and The Society of Classical Poets. 

 

Bagatelle

  by James B. Nicola

Have you ever been nowhere
with someone
and yet been everywhere?
Or vice versa?

For the paradox to play,
one part might have to be fact; the other, feeling:
You could travel to twenty-eight countries with a companion and yet not know them at all;
or strike up a conversation with a stranger on a park bench or in a café or bar, and in a flash know everything there is to know about them,
or worth knowing, it would seem, about the world.

Or so I've heard.

I've tried twenty-eight park benches so far.
This morning, a café; tonight, a bar.

Tomorrow,
I think I'll try
the world.

Bio:  James B. Nicola, a returning contributor, is the author of six full-length poetry collections. His decades of working in the theater culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award.

 

 

A  Ship of Trees

         by Carolyn Wolfe

A ship of trees

went sailing past my window

The Passengers

were Pines and Maple,

Oak and Ash

The Birch trees waved

and the Willow trees swayed

All happily up rooted

Their leaves blowing in the wind

Going on an adventure

that I can only imagine

To put down new roots?

To create a community of Forest?

I do not know

And as I lay wondering

at such a flight

the moon came out

shining on their leaves

silvering their branches

surrounding the ship

with her light

then came the stars

lining up

creating a path across the sky

guiding these travelers

To their next port of call…

Wide awake I stepped to the window

catching a last glimpse of their ship

in starlight.

 

 

Bio: Carolyn Wolfe is a free-lance writer, published poet, and author of eight books, four of which are illustrated children's books. Those include, "Am I YOUR Pet?", "The Drowsy House," "The Bedtime of The Sky and Other Sleepy-Bye Stories" and "The Unhappy Little Dragon, Lessons Learned." Her books for general readership include: "Miracle Paws, A Love Story" a story of rescue and light romance, and"The Moonsparrow Collection" which is a collection of her short fantasy stories. Ms. Wolfe has also published two collections of her original poetry" Notes From the Shadow Self" and "Making Waves," as well as an adult Sword and Sorcery novella, "Blade's Magic"  which is about dangerous magics and an attraction that spans two worlds.  her latest book,"Tales Told Under The Darkened Moon" is a collection of dark fantasy stories, that have a hint of humor, a hint of dread, and little bit of shiver for all fans of ghost stories and tales that go bump in the night.