Supplements

Health professionals
keep on dispensing advice
like they are filling a quota

take this supplement
this one will boost you
so the first ten minutes
of my day is an exercise
in pill swallowing

I buy special devices
to arrange them, imagining
as I push each down
a day added to the calendar.


Alan Inman,
New York, NY

Strands

I still find pieces
you left behind, small
memories captured in
still life photographs,
a strand there, a filament
here, evidence that you
filled this space, even
though you have moved
on to other plains.


Camille Clark,
Atlanta, Georgia,
US

Protector

Let me be
your solid protection
your lead blanket
your heartless wonder

let me be
the ground you stand
on, and the rain
that pelts down,
baptizes you in spring

let me be
your history, your
personal tragedy,
your vestment,
an armament, let me
be your childhood
makeshift fortress.


Nate Maye,
Texas, US