Fractured Woman

Fractured Woman

Fractured Woman by Toni Ortner utilizes the prose poem to confront the urgent social, political and environmental events of our times. In “Report on Easter Sunday from the Third Planet from the Sun” the writer responds to the devastation caused by climate...

Chanting

How did it begin and when. At first I was alone wandering down the street looking for something. Then came the drums the shouts the horses the men. It was a big parade and everyone marching was shouting and the crowd was the one man and the one man the crowd. They...

Jumper I at the World Trade Center

If you saw me at all you must have seen me falling as a dark image against a white sky legs scissor out and wondered if you imagined me or if I existed like you but was falling through thousands of feet of air as if I were swimming towards the pavement through water...

Change

You cannot find the word you need. The sun is shining/ your shades are down. When you wake /you want to sleep.   The afternoon light is dirtied with indifference Nights filled to the brim with grief.
For the 10 year old girl from Syria

For the 10 year old girl from Syria

The mirror stopped laughing when the bullets shattered the window. Shards of glass flew through the startled air. Familiar voices stopped when the wires were cut. Description fled in dust. It was the end of metaphor. You huddled on the floor in the dark arms of...