ADR poetry published in 2023
Neurology Exam
My neurologist asks me many questions
To make sense of my brain:
What day of the week is it?
Where are you now?
What is your home address?
(What if I am homeless?)
What state are you in?
Where were you born?
What did you eat this morning?
How many fingers am I holding up?
William Whispers In My Ear
Maybe this month, the good tomorrow, perhaps this day,
or even at the last minute, a simple joy will come. Already
I’ve made it through the night. At this stage of my life,
I’ll reserve judgment as to whether it is fate or a predestined
purpose for my suffering. Yet there are many others who suffer
more. Who am I to complain or doubt the value of my existence?
Continue reading William Whispers In My Ear by John C. Mannone
Emerson Eye Mind
Life of an American Word Scholar
For the Incarcerated Writer, Future, Past, and Present
“And I may dine at journey’s end
with Landor and with Donne.”
-William Butler Yeats
Now at the end
and you know it, you find the stub
of old pencil in a pants pocket.
Birds to Prey
A painted eagle soars across the commissioned mural
of our mountain town, as if highlighting hidden gems
of heritage and scenery not found on digital maps
or surveilled by a Chinese balloon trekking southeast
from Montana to the Carolinas hunting who-knows-what
and prompting Statue-of-Liberty-sized rumors. I capture Continue reading Birds to Prey by Laura G. Miller
Home Care
With only the press of a button
the pillows rise on a gentle slope, his eyes on mine.
The window is open a crack, the way he likes,
light and breeze dimple the gauzy curtains.
His lips move on the moistened cloth,
but he does not speak.
Summer Memory
When closed not too tight
my gray eyes
take me back to that Sunday evening
a grown summer memory
blurred by the sun
Mexican beers and lime salt.
Asset from Another World
A star sticks to the nape of his neck
like an interplanetary kiss. His first
day in Farmersville, suspicion rises
like hair on a cat’s back. Folks do not
notice transparent, green eyes or
the odor of outer space he emits, but
talk of the star spreads fast as a missile.
Drunks at the Mahogany Bar want
to aim guns at the stranger who entered
town as if on a wisp of cosmic magic.
Continue reading Asset from Another World by R. Nikolas Macioci
Resolutions
Sever the knot – snap buttons and bands.
Never be bound again. Strike a match
beneath the To-Do list and dismiss
dogma – pretense out the door. Rage
with new photosynthesis fueled
by moonlight, proclaim the restored soul.
And Weariness Is My Name
I have weathered wolves and deities, fought horrors dreamt and real,
kept my word and my identity, though the system bade me fail.
I have championed my brother, taken succor with the weal,
sourced my secret tides for good and ill, borne my pain beyond the pale.
Continue reading And Weariness Is My Name by Ron Sanders
Oh My Scorpio
You are my lover,
my impulsive, passionate thrill,
tight-fisted and lost
in your own turmoil.