In this issue
Edited by Deborah Fries
For more information
about
writing workshops offered by
the Cheltenham Township Adult School, contact:
Cheltenham Township Adult School
1414 Panther Road
Wyncote, PA 19095
Phone: 215-887-1720
Jennifer Hubbard
three poems
Late Spring
Green pushes skyward,
Bangs against a
slate ceiling,
Spears clouds that
yield
Another round of
sleet.
Violets explode
Between the
batteries of lesser celandine.
Daffodils raise
their frilled cups
In the heady toast
of a last night before the war;
Hyacinths shiver,
yet blast us with scent.
The goldfinches
flaunt defiant yellow,
Muzzle-flash
against a dead-leaf background.
Spring spits on the
fist of winter,
As if to unclench
that white hand,
But the drizzle
freezes in mid-air.
Bees chug through
their flowery rounds,
Sluggish in the
cold air.
It’s mid-April, and
nothing is waiting any more--
Everything bursts
out, sun or not, saying,
Now.
Blackberries
You battle back brambles that arch over
the lawn, always
reaching, stalks creeping everywhere.
Their tendrils
snake along the ground
to sink roots, to
grip the earth.
They sting you when
you harvest. Thorns
prick pearls of
blood from your skin.
The pebbly seeds catch in
the cracks
between your teeth,
burrow under your gums.
Birds strip the
berries when they’re sour,
just before they’re
ripe enough for you.
But you bake them
in cobblers oozing
purple syrup, crush
hot berries with your tongue.
Jade Anemone
Jade anemone:
open mouth,
sucking center,
with tentacles that
sweep
the world in.
Endless feeding,
Endless needing.
The whole ocean
washes
through its mouth
and still it
sweeps.
Jennifer R. Hubbard lives in Wyncote. Her short fiction has appeared in journals such as Thema, Willow Review and North American Review.