FOUR FEATHERS PRESS ONLINE EDITION: POINT UP Send up to three poems on the subject of or at least mentioning the words point and/or up, totaling up to 150 lines in length, in the body of an email message or attached in a Word file to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 PM PST on April 18th. No PDF's please. Color artwork is also desired. Please send in JPG form. No late submissions accepted. Poets and artists published in Four Feathers Press Online Edition: Point Up will be published online and invited to read at the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Zoom meeting on Saturday, April 19th between 3 and 5 pm PST.

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Michelle Smith

I miss his essence.

It is fleeting in leaves

that grow in all seasons,

glow in all colors,

and blow in the wind.

The beckoning on my shoulder

is a perched watchful wise owl

in a tree.

Am I dreaming of komorebi?

The warmth of your spirit

bakes fronds rustling on

the ground. With my every step

their crunchy points

speak to your essential sturdy spines.

The stillness frames a misty

watercolor memory;

a fleeting moment that

I wish could be reality.




Flare Up & Flare Down


Don't forget the Zofran

I-D elixir: stir it

up in a cup. Whatever


comes out won't be

a pretty portrait picture.

Click. Click.Click.

Nauseousness and keen


nose aromas may make me

upchuck. But


the smell, well hell it

will vacate


a room. Unfortunately, a car's

engine and your ass can't

move quick enough, to go

varoom, boom, boom. My stomach


is a bubbly calderon. My small

intestine aka ileum has particles


and liquid combos to move

back and forth, back

and forth. The ebb

and flow

of the Pacific Ocean after


the dry, why sigh,as I cry, cry. Multiple

dry heaves tumble and roar in my abdominal

walls, imaginary drum

set non stop and won't fall. My head


aims for the porcelain throne.

Flush, flush, gush

Flee, flee, fuck!


Will I need a plumber?


Or the heroism

of Robin Hood and Friar Tuck?

I can see


my open toe sandals

covered in your known what with


the illness of IBD

aka

Crohn's Disease.


The abdominal flares are

an unfit, unforgiving, unfair

puzzle piece. Screech, each leech


a continuous spinning

top. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh

what a relief it is--Not!


Tramadol or Charlotte's

Web. I pray these pain

relievers won't have me

press my luck. I'll be

the ostrich with its head

buried

in the sand with no feathers

being plucked, plucked, plucked.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Scott Ferry

16. i tell my son we need to get out of the pool but, of course, he wants to stay as i crawl along the shallow water to the exit i feel his ...