Author Archives: JRL

Don’t Drink the Water: anagram

Beyond those twisted, sneering smiles there must be miles of higher ground; why can’t we rise above the slime, insist upon a change of venue?

Why, with this crop of sour limes must we add sugar to the drink? Refuse the Kool-Aid; it is poison. Once you drink it, it’s all over. Continue reading

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The Blunderbuss Dragon: amphigory

Behold the dragon come alive:
not breathing fire, but spewing jive
and nonsense from its rubber lips,
and poison from its finger tips!
It cannot speak except to squawk,
and is too pendulous to walk,
except some strutting to and fro
in front of mirrors that it loves so. Continue reading

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Curiouser and Curiouser

There’s a pet theory of mine that says if you’re nine years old, having reached the third year of elementary school, and you don’t love to read and have at least some middling skills at it, your life is going to be from that point forward much simpler, much less colorful, and to no small degree, much more difficult. Maybe it’s because I started reading at four, and by the time I was in first grade I was reading at a 6th grade level (apparently, the point on the yardstick at least 50% of Americans find themselves). Continue reading

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Recrimination: alcaics

There really isn’t anything fantastic in how the world is currently eroding; it’s not a sudden, haunting nightmare
that cropped up silent out of nowhere.

The dream is over; everyone awakens and cries out, “What is happening, America?” but doesn’t want the blame for sleeping nor think they are the cause for crying. Continue reading

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The Sleeper: alba (aubade)

A tiny bit of light seeps in along the sofa’s edge;
into the folds of fuzzy blankets shadows flee,
as the first dappled warm begins its creep
against the surface of her sleeping face. Continue reading

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Just Past the Fire: ae freislighe

It should be more troubling:
a lack of common sense abounds,
and this thin gruel bubbling
is not fit food for the hounds. Continue reading

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It’s a Mad Mad World

I keep coming back to hatred, not only because there seems to be so much of it around right now – not simmering just under the surface like it has most of my life; no now it’s raised it’s ugly, … Continue reading

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