THE BAG WITHOUT ANY BOTTOM 1/3 Wayne-Daniel Berard Once there was a boy named Ket’her (ket-air). Ket’her lived alone with his mother, a widow, in a tiny village situated where the desert met the mountains. It was a harsh country, and Ket’her and his mother were quite poor, herding a few sheep up and down […]

My Grandmother’s Crystal In the evenings, I sip wine from my grandmother’s crystal. I tell myself she would like that, but I know she wouldn’t. She was staunchly born-again. Drinking was a sin. But I’ve committed so many sins, what’s one more? Redemption will come. There’s still time. Things aren’t entirely hopeless. Not yet. I […]

Sequestration Farouche intensifies the alienation. Writing fills the vacancy. In hush- hush I decode my ornaments. They are different: fewer goldsmiths for me. Not the usual chandler, my sail is another sort. Pule from her pillow disrupts the dream. She fails to read the query in my eyelet. Obsessive patterns have an ax to grind: […]

A Folding of Light Observed from Cnoc na Péiste, As clouds brush-stroked the land, Soft shadows on the corn fields, Painting forests lakes and strands. The contours washed in shades of grey, As light folded softly all around; A masterpiece of nature’s art, Both in silence and in sound. It approached the place where I […]

He says no to déjà vu but I’ve heard it all before Sometimes even when I’ve slept for hours, grey gathers at the corners of my eyes, a dawn vignette, and you are speaking everything you say is something I can predict because I know we talked about this months ago you tell me again […]

Death Contemplation Is it dangerous? ..a woman called Kathy asks..in an online forum, then at 12: 56 AM..zendude..from Albuquerque, replies..not if you do it right ..followed by a cheerful yellow emoji. &because….some…mornings when I am walking to work in the mellow light, the nutty autumn smell…in the air as I pass a row of ginkgos, […]

Kiddush Every Sabbath, on my way to Morning Prayer, I pass the tennis courts on Bialik Street. The Russians are already in the midst of matches. Before I see them, I hear them, calling to one another, grunting. Sometimes I stop to watch them. They play bare-headed, wear white sweatbands on their wrists. After Prayer, […]

12.10.18 6.58 a.m. 20 degrees Petulant nuthatch cranks at me to fill the feeders. Open water yesterday is frozen today, and yesterday’s ice is noticeably thicker this morning. The hoarfrost-landscape is dull, but the sun has just risen, and soon the dew will glint and then vanish.   12.11.18 12.27 p.m. 22 degrees Pitiless, windless, […]

Cathedral All around this echo-chambered womb a rush a beat………..the drone…… cathedral bees the bells…… (Cull) their toll……. this ebb and weft of words We come to crouch in choir stalls, this morning it is (lambing) lamentation time the rite is drawing close near …….we stop to bow our heads Dies Irae……. Dona Eis Writers […]

Phoenix Consumed I am the bird who flew for years under the sun, until I took the sun into my wings, into my breast. ……………..It raged and heated until I was raged and heated. My wings lost their feathers and I fell, fluttering ……………..spines of arms from the sun. I fell for a long time. […]