Under the Sky World
by Daniel Wilcox
Under the sky world
Below the sloshing white caps,
Liquid life undulates down through
The watery sphere's domain;
A soft brilliance of rays from
Above strike silver lines down
Through the deepening green
While strange denizens move in
Rhythmic concertos;
A great turtle flippers alone, dull-jade submarine;
Then sheened orchestras of under creatures
Tuna, halibut, and cod their way
In a Strauss waltz west with the current;
Snorkeling deeper
Finned life multiplies to the seventh
Wide oceans crowded round,
Translucent, entrailed, scaled and numinous;
Scuttling down to endless flips of tail
Iridescent, orange, purple, yellow;
Suddenly spades-black ink billows out
Deep in the guts of the world's water
To the side of the neon coral,
So mused reefs,
Expanding, darkening the undermost
Arms, arms, arms, and arms—
Many a league,
The fabled
One.
___________________________________________________
Hardwood Tap Dancer
by Daniel Wilcox
At the oak door
Your young golden retriever—
Who chewed through the metal
Water pipe and flooded your rental
Townhouse
Totally—
That infamous hound, now
Head wagging the air to tailed excess,
Greets me like his long lost master
In a bounding tap dance of 'appaws'
Clack, clack, clacking
Across your shiny hardwood floor
To a sliding dognail-scratched stop,
Frenzied movement and pointed-pup
Cold wet nosing;
With joy, he's the wonder
Jumper
Thumper
Prancer
Dancer
Of
Dog
Here
Ness.
Bio:
Daniel Wilcox earned his degree in Creative Writing from Cal State University, Long Beach. A former activist, teacher, and wanderer--from Montana to the Middle East-- he casts his lines out upon the world's turbulent waters and wide shores in Moria, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Scruffy Dog Review, The Writer's Eye, etc. Poems will soon be published in Frame Lines and Wild Violet. A short story, "The Faces of Stone" based on his time in the Middle East, was published in both The Danforth Review and Danse Macabre. Recently, Daniel completed a speculative novel and a poetry collection. He lives on the central coast of California with his mysterious wife and youngest son.
Website: http://seaquaker.com/poetry
Shipwrecked
by Sergio Ortiz
I am
the sailboat
made
of seagulls
singing
to the magnolias
between your
fingertips,
the meeting
place
that interweaves
your voice
and dreams,
all the colors
of throbbing
constellations,
red
dripping
from my shoulders
unto
your lips.
If your ocean
had a door,
I'd shipwreck
my breath
against it.
Bio: Sergio Ortiz grew up in Chicago, studied English literature at Inter-American University in San German, Puerto Rico, and philosophy at World University. He was an ESL teacher most of his life but also worked with the elderly blind population as a Daily Living Skills Instructor for the El Paso Lighthouse for the Blind, and the Texas Lions Camp. He studied culinary art at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia and became a chef.
His work has been published, or is pending publication, in Origami Condom, Poets Ink
Review, POUI The Cave, Flutter, Silenced Press, Cause & Effect, The Cherry Blossom Review, Ink Sweat & Tears, Ascent Aspirations, Cause & Effect, The Battered Suitcase, Yellow Medicine, Shipwright, Ballard Poetry Review, and over three dozen other Journals, Magazines, and Anthologies.
