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The End Of Summer The first of June's a date I dread: it says Hello to summer, season of delayed Excursions, gridlocked airports, cancelled res- Ervations, sun with insufficient shade (No air con), perspiration and a gar- Den overrun by weeds and insects, spied On by the neighbours whose three passions are Forensic lawn care (with a herbicide), Solicitously grooming every bloom (Unblemished by their arthropods, which sprays Mow down) and dropping hints that I should groom, Maintaining tension all through summer's days ... Except on August thirty one, when I Relax—for then the end of summer's nigh! (First published in the June 2025 issue of Lighten Up Online as a winning entry to Competition 69: Living Easy Or Queasy) |
Birthday Primes Begin at 2 to line up twenty primes. Include 3, 5 and 7. Skip past 10 (Recalling 2 goes into it 5 times) To reach 11 and the teen primes. Then Hop over 20—twenties 3 and 9 Deliver primeness next. The 30s yield, Again, a pair of primes to join the line, Yet, in the 40s, three primes are revealed ... Prime numbers, lined up till there are a score, Reach one and seventy, my age amount In years. Must all those years be counted? For My age is only twenty if the count Excludes non-primes. Then age but slowly climbs. Should we not all count age in birthday primes? (First published in the Fall 2025 issue of WestWard Quarterly) |
Eschatological Eschatological—relating to Solemnities of death and judgement—can Communicate no feel for what is true Hereafter: it's devoid of context, an Abstraction, just a soulless word. But art Transmits such feel. If, after shipwreck and On foreign soil, you're ready to restart Life, after almost losing hope you'd land On solid ground, you have no purpose for Grand words on final destiny—you are In your hereafter now. You don't fear more Catastrophe: you faced down death. Your star Ascends. Your sky is blue. Your morning sun Lights up your dawn. Hereafter has begun. (First published in the Ekphrastic Review on 5th September, 2025 as a response to Eschatological by Kitty North) |