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.

Friday, April 18, 2025

Terry McCarty

THE BALLAD OF TAYLOR SWIFT AND JAKE GYLLENHAAL


she made records he made movies  

she was an old soul when it came to business 

but young enough to still believe in love 

as something that mattered more than 

mere material for song lyrics 

but he was ten years older and steeped

in the ways of the world as he saw it 


when the breakup came,

he apparently said something about 

how the age difference made a difference 

so therefore he was okay with leaving 

she felt like a crushed pomegranate 

then turned heartbreak 

into no ordinary end of relationship song 

singing for ten minutes on SNL 

with audible grief of youth 

still present in the thirtyish woman 

telling fans not to walk up and down this particular path 

if you don’t yet have self-awareness

especially don’t give yourself to a man 

who may regard you as no more than a mere trifle




TONY AND JUDY


they seemed so happy and right for each other 

she gave him focus, he buoyed her confidence 

but, at a certain point, their love disappeared 

and he departed hipster Austin for his conservative hometown 


I never knew why they split up

but it couldn’t have been the desire

to work in the family business

repairing telephone cable in a ladder truck




POEM ABOUT GUN MASSACRES AND PERPETRATORS 


 we act shocked 

 at something we didn’t foresee 

 offer up thoughts and prayers

 and do nothing after this one


 repeating the cycle of

 unchecked anger

 grieving families and friends

 again and again and again 


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