Words & Music

by Mike Power

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  • Alexander Solzhenitsyn stopped by to see you…

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn stopped by to see you today while you were out. We talked for a while about Russian soldiers and all the women they raped in the waning days of the second world war and thereafter. Estimates run into the millions. Girls and women younger than eight and older than eighty, gang-raped, some until… Read more

  • Specificity

    It was the specificity of the dream that disturbed me most. Dreams, after all, are supposed to be wispy things, easily attributed to vague impressions and hungers of one sort or another. This one was different. We were dancing, which was odd, as we were never much for dancing. Maybe the dancing symbolized something else.… Read more

  • The Morning Commute

    I We waited, some more patiently than others of course, for the yawning chasm to open up and swallow us again. The guy next to me, in reference to the presentation of a nearby woman, said, “it doesn’t leave much to the imagination.” Maybe his imagination is not as good as mine. In fact, I’d… Read more

  • Monday Is Chore Day

    I I walked for a long time shifting the box from shoulder to shoulder, feeding it through doorways and windows and leaving it with someone who should know better. I got in my car and I drove to the place where the slaughterhouse ends and the garden surrenders to the street. I rolled on the… Read more

  • And Just Like That The Summer Ends

    And just like that the summer ends With the whistle of a rocket and the hiss that escapes from a canfull of bubbles With a muffled sound that is either a cough or the long sigh that follows surrender And just like that the summer ends The calendar turns to October The clock will turn… Read more

  • Beverly Was Off Her Meds Last Night

    I Beverly was off her meds last night while we perused the parade of paradoxes. Now she can see it all, shiny and clear, the teeth dripping blood and the hidden escape route down the long valley and into the trees. II Beverly was off her meds last night and she wanted the whole world… Read more