by Toni Ortner | Sep 29, 2021 | Poems
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...
by Toni Ortner | Sep 29, 2021 | Poems
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...
by Toni Ortner | Sep 29, 2021 | Poems
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.
by Toni Ortner | Sep 29, 2021 | Poems
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...
by Toni Ortner | Sep 29, 2021 | Poems
He tried to see red and blue horses galloping across a plain, but the horses would not come. His wife was crying by his side. He thought if he saw them he would live to see another day. It was a full moon night in April, and the willows were about to bud. He tried to...
by Toni Ortner | Sep 29, 2021 | Poems
The dried stalks of the sunflowers are snapped in half, and the wooden slats of the porch are split and broken. Fake spider webs are draped across the columns of the porch, and a plastic skeleton hangs from the branch of a tree. The front door is half open but blocked...
