David Russell draws

BEACH CLINCH

JD DeHart writes

OMENS

I'm looking for meaning

in an invisible web.

I'm trying to suss out,

make sense, as if all is

metaphor.

Maybe, maybe not.

The moving leaf

may be a sign or simply

some stray wind,

reminding me of my hope

for a grand plan.

 At the First Clear Word -- Max Ernst

Deeya Bhatacharya writes

Missing on a Weekend

Weekends are subterfuges in love, desire, pain. They are the extra toppings on the platter of life. Primroses bloom on Saturday evenings. Cigarette stubs flood Saturday evenings. They lie on ash-trays and etherize them. Mouth-watering delicacies arrive in baking and serving trays. A well-trimmed beard or a perfect bun witnesses frivolousness and gaiety. A Jay whistles nearby. Its mating call suits the ambience. The chopped air calls for celebration, the French-fried noon - can you celebrate denial. Can you play hopscotch with a million stars on a perfect night-sky. They stoop and rise to the rhythm of life.

                                                    Sundays are meant for figs and olives in oil. Wearing a tan is a jewel. Cooking stories of tulips, lettuce spinach blooms on a half-baked noon is sumptuous. Flurries and pastries join the row. Surrogate dreams come in sugar-brown candies that melt in the mouth. Dreams hibernate - I made you up in my mind - the world drops dead, stony eyes remain. I confide in them. Those stubborn dreams capsize…..my adulterous heart handles felony with care. 

 Weekend Runaway -- Janine  Daddo

Joy V. Sheridan writes

Of State and Regency

August is such majesty
That weathers the tempest
Of an indeterminant life
For who can know
On which earthly scene
The bondage of flesh and blood leads us?

But you, O Supreme Lady
Have cast indifference aside,
And have cast smiles like pearl ripples
On the tides and waters of life!

What you have and do offer
Is intelligent compassion
Mixed with a genius
That quietens the unruly,
The unruly rule of its days
And many ways.

What corruptions you know of
You treat with an austere wisdom
Which brokers fools not gladly.

Smile, my lady, smile!
And you will cast a spell
For reverence on your age.

The page daily needs no script
That is not written
With compassionate need.

And as you cast your eyes
On a plethora of busyness
You so rightly judge,
With your wisdom
Garnered over your ninety years, fairly.

You stand in shafts of pure light
Which stream forth
From the heart of heaven.

Supremely regal, your humane response
To daily dilemmas does not interfere
With your duties
Of wife, mother and Grande Dame
To your people.

Long may you reign,

Estimable body of Regal Queen
Elizabetha Regina.

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, The Blue Portrait I -- Ioanna Efthimiou

Shalini Samuel writes

The antidote to sadness

I 
As he stands alone on an empty terrace

The wind swooshes by
Inflating his hollow heart
A minute passes by
Again another wind
This one from the west
A fiercer one in the recent past
Deflates his hollow heart
His hand tries to be a veil
Yet it punctures his face
Smile undresses revealing the frown
Upset, tired, he sits on the floor
Every time the wind blows
The empty terrace haunts him

He wished her to be the breeze
That would caress his heart
Did he carve her with his finest chisel
Did he ever care to beautify her beauty
She wants him to love her, crave her
She wants his attention and respect
She is his most beautiful ladylove
The most sensible and the most caring girl
A little imbalance makes her restless
Once disturbed, she might disturb him for life
Her vengeance is the most dreadful poison
She is the best when she is sweet
She is the worst when she is unsettled
Did he love her? Why is she killing him?

II
Oh dear, who is she, he asks himself?

Lost in scary past, he cares her not
Yet she pierces his mind, engulfing every broken bone
His tears do move her a little
She goes to him again as his first kiss
His first day at office, his first child
Bringing a smile on his dead face

Recognizing her real heart, he begs her
Sweet memory, reside with me forever
Dear never think of turning my life bitter
You are the one I desire to be with
You are a million smiles I see in the world
In my solace and in my best days,
You are my companion,don't abandon me, oh love
He cries for her love and for her grace
Oh love... leave me not
Come into my heart, enter my home in tears
Wipe away the trauma, be the angel of change

III
Will she enter into his life again?

Let us not be a loser like him
Gather sweet memories like a bee
Gather sweetness from flowers of Neem too
Better late than never
Let your life be a honeycomb without a tinge of bitterness.
Come, let us create sweet moments
For they would become sweet memories
And the best antidote for sadness

--Amira Mimi