DIVIDE ME by Susan Tepper

fruit of your evil

a split tree 

where maggots 

spill out

exposing roots &

entrails

You should hide

your eyes—

I crawled on my belly.

An undergrowth

had wild strawberries 

in yellow heat.

Picking them 

out of vines

tangled with dirt

in my mouth.

Small and tasteless

in their plentitude.

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

HARBINGER by Lorraine Caputo

Oh, great black moth
of ragged wings,
you come fluttering in
through my open
transom windows,
through these shadows of near-
midnight, drawn by
the light of my
sleeplessness.

You, with those eyes glowing
like coals in these
bedded hours – 
whose death are you
foretelling? 

 Lorraine Caputo is a wandering troubadour whose poetry appear in over 200 journals on six continents, and 14 chapbooks – including Caribbean Nights (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017) and On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. In 2011, the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada honored her verse. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America with her faithful knapsack Rocinante, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth. Follow her adventures at www.facebook.com/lorrainecaputo.wanderer or https://latinamericawanderer.wordpress.com.