Tad Tuleja: Query
Did nature red in tooth and claw
So rattle Alfred Tennyson
Because wolves dine on roebuck raw
While he preferred roast venison?
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A. M. Juster: My Next Children’s Book
My editor keeps pushing back
and claims the book will catch some flak—
not for its feline hero, “Jack,”
but for his feathered sidekick, “Snack.”
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Tonia Kalouria: So Here’s Why They Call it
Middle Age
That winsome wasp-waist
once so trim, firm and svelte,
is now cruelly choked
by each button and belt.
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Matthew Sumner: Palindrome Poem
To LIVE backwards is EVIL
in actual fact
but to reverse a RACECAR
has no impact.
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Richard Jordan: 40th Class Reunion
I bring my letter jacket so they’ll know
but they remember fumbles, not my score.
The band tries “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
and blows the chorus as I find the door.
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John Cooper: On Ageing
You cannot really know about ageing
Until that is you do,
And by then it is far too late
And you just have to see it through.
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Russel Winick: Handwritten Letters
Handwritten letters may seem obsolete,
But I still think we need them.
Charming and personal, they can’t be beat.
That is, if you can read them.
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Jan D. Hodge: Some Comfort
“We’re not firing all of the bullets in our quiver.”
—U.S. official on the U.S. response to a Russian
jet downing one of its drones over the Black Sea.
Nor all of the arrows in our holster,
Thank goodness. We must never bolster
The chances that our action trigger
This incident into something bigger.
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Max Gutmann: With Gratitude
When my poetry's silent, I'm glad
For the comfort I find in your verse,
Which affirms, though not writing is bad,
There are things that are worse.
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Henry Stimpson: Just Saying
Is there a schism
Between an aphorism
And an epigram?
Is it worth a damn?
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L.A. Mereoie: Post-Mortem Point
The horse, unlike the motor-car,
Will, after death, be seen by few,
Not lie, a scrapyard’s visual scar,
And rust in pieces all can view.
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Tony Peyser: When A Hollywood Synagogue
Became A Harley-Davidson Store . . .
The curious gentrification
That was in bloom
Rather rapidly went from
Shalom to vroom.
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Margaret Own Ruckert: There’s no fool like an old taste bud
I’ve perfected my garlic mushroom dish
replacing the original prawns for dinner.
It’s faster and cheaper and so much neater.
If this is a cheat – I’m a satisfied sinner.
