If Things Should Return to Normal
Judy Dykstra-Brown
Just in case the world we know ever returns to normal,
I feel we’ll need reminders for behavior less informal.
So, let me reacquaint you with the former art of dressing.
Introducing color-matching, underwear and pressing.
It’s been a number of months now—five, to be precise—
since there was the necessity to put on something nice
and face the maze of traffic to go to an event.
So before you visit places where you once often went,
you may require reminders, lest in trips to spots exalted
you could find your entry may otherwise be halted.
Entrance to most restaurants requires shirt and shoes,
along with all your other clothes. Forget this, and you’ll lose
precious hours driving home to remedy the fact
that you’ve forgotten basics of how you used to act.
Out there in the real world, genteel folks do not dare
to go about half-dressed and it’s good to cut your hair.
Put on a little lipstick and tweeze hairs from your chin.
Do not gobble down your food and do not slurp your gin.
When the world returns to normal and you go out once more,
just in case, please pin this little check-list to your door.
Though reminders may be premature, be glad that you have gotten them,
for by the time they’re needed, I’ll most likely have forgotten them.
*****
This is Not the United States I Once Believed In
Mel Goldberg
This is not the United States I once believed in,
the one that mostly did honorable things
people could admire, like fighting fascism in WW II
or passing laws to guarantee everyone civil rights.
Today, the decent, kind country no longer exists.
It has become acceptable to be anti-Semitic,
anti-immigrant, and anti-education, features which
had usually been covert, but are now in the open.
The majority are insensitive, lack morality,
Have no knowledge of history, are amenable to autocracy,
led by arrogant billionaires, conspiracy theorists,
and a felon. Intellect and truth have become suspect.
Voters decided the MAGA lies are
more important than individual rights or the rule of law.
In their nostalgia for a non-existent past,
they forget the sick died if they could not afford treatment,
the working poor were exploited by CEOs,
that Jews could only attend universities under a quota,
Blacks could not use bathrooms marked White only,
and Mexicans should only be farm laborers.
The Vice-President believes it is normal
for school children to fear death by gunfire.
Will people in the future look back
to these times which has legitimized
selfishness and criminality
*****
Storm
Rob Mohr
A tornado raged within, as
emotional-winds threatened
my fragile mental state.
I became a leaf tossed
in a gale of uncertainty –
whose turbulence clouded
my vision and awareness.
Each thought, a frayed thread,
unraveled by contradictions,
that fell softly all around me.
Entangled, I became a prisoner
trapped within the arms of fate,
amidst a tornado of confusion.
Suddenly, beyond the storm,
lay a glimmer of sunlight,
a flicker of blue sky, just
visible outside the inner core.
a peace filled place and time
where my will reached out and
grasp freedom from my frailty.
Then the strong winds calmed,
as the sky opened her arms,
and I surrendered to her beauty,
*****
The Land of Abandoned Books
Mel Goldberg
There is a library where stacks
of abandoned books are kept,
beyond the hum of computers
or the chaos of street traffic.
Dust motes dance in the dim light,
but no readers turn pages of novels,
no poets silently mouth Shelley’s Ozymandius.
The books have all been ferried
across the Styx with Charon,
to be forgotten a land
where there are no stars in the sky,
and no footprints in the dust.
*****
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After he retired and moved to Sedona, Arizona, he taught literature at Yavapai College in Clarkdale, Arizona.
He and professional artist Bev Kephart bought a small motor home in 2003, sold most of their possessions, and traveled the U. S. for seven years. After visiting Mexico several times, they settled in the village of Ajijic, joining the ex-pat artist and writing communities.
Mel’s writing has been published online and in print in The United Kingdom, The United States, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia. He is the author of three novels, a book of short stories, and several books of poetry. He and his wife now make their home in the village of San Nicholas de Ibarra.
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