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things gone without

By Thomas Kortkamp

endless trains  plow under these hills of rusty clay   pulled by a team of mournful     donkeys the whistle bray echoes    among black tongue cattle circling turkey vultures        tidy the roads, protect     fallow ground on the track there is wall...	rock elm & crimson dogwood crudely   woven          together with     inner tubes     & ropes     of          boiled   fiber the station is long gone.   no cookies nor carrots   can please the blinded team & the steel      boxes with lovely graffiti won’t slow down

last winter’s quest

By Thomas Kortkamp

once, we children set out      together on the golden road across big prairie... among the stalks of goldenrod & queen anne’s lace, hands rose: pale    & insipid, menacing our flanks swiftly along to the mother tree haven   on thin soil fallen branches caressing being consumed by buttery     toadstools we climbed to breathe… a potion of beard hair and fresh blood nursed the   wounded she provides the finest relief, but never from the scathing wind. so provoked    we came down in the maple grove, home-work called: the frame was brittle       silver poles frapped with hemp &         slick orange twine nearby,      growling nihilists with GIGANTIC scissors had severed piles of young       cedar perfect for to thatch our fort. bare hands    heaving to burst the gin-flavoured tangle the shelter       emerging   a nook for stashing treasure

but something treasured was lost... the despair was instantaneous. on hands and knees skimming the duff scanning through tears for a precious ring of bone we had faith, but no hope. & just then,      the hound   loped in from a chase… he has a head for such things so the dreadful condition was spoken. he panted, ostensibly motionless:   a lazy eye happened to glance over his spine… there it lay! on the ground atop countless lifetimes of shadows      seldom considered: a bleached but glowing circle, rediscovered & ready to go home.

Cover Page • Community - The Good Stuff • Ecovillage Baby • Tony B's Bio • Suzanne's New Warren • Nature Corner • Poetry • Thank You