Off the Lake by Susan Tepper

Above the tree line 
thickly green all year
ice off the lake 
drops a wide sheet
forming a screen 
dulling the blue
the sky vacuous—
I can no longer sip.
Throat to parchment
chokes every word
I meant to—
As in a foretelling
or some dream
that sooner or later
will turn my eyelids back.

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry.  Her most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry published by Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and the road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019).  Tepper has received many honors and awards.  She’s a native  ) New Yorker.  www.susantepper.com

Where The Buzzards Gather By John Patrick Robbins

 

Off from the main road, the animal lay dying as the buzzards silently wait.

Standing watch to pick the soon to be departed victims bones clean.

A writer's words are doomed from the moment he sends them off to be dissected by editors and fellow fools alike.

The buzzards view a future corpse yearning with every breath.

Looming overhead creeping up slowly.

Tearing flesh from bone.

To destroy and feast until all is clean.

We are all victims that pen words to paper.

Hopeless is the effort yet dreamers yearn as drunkards thirst for that final sip.

Just off from the main road I await death with the buzzards.

To erase my presence from this earth.

My pages will outlast them all yet the buzzards do not concern themselves with tomorrow.

A reaper knows not a legacy as a victim holds little hope.

Art is meant to be appreciated never dissected.

Avoid the buzzards as best you can.

John Patrick Robbins,  is the editor in chief of the Rye Whiskey Review and Black Shamrock Magazine, Under The Bleachers. 

He is also the author of The Still Night Sessions available on LuLu from Whiskey City Press.

His work has been published in.

Fearless Poetry Zine,  Punk Noir Magazine, San Pedro River Review,  San Antonio Review,  Piker Press, The Dope Fiend Daily and 1870 Magazine. 

His work is always unfiltered.