shine your light quietly

lovely and silent

birds are messengers from the next universe 

their songs tell us where to go 

to pass through to the next universe 

the songs explain where the escape holes are located 

there is one hole for each bird 

and one bird for each person 

are you ready to pass through 

I am 

another universe is waiting

*

the library was silent

but the fart was not

*

My morning coffee is the mighty Mississippi River, the strength of my continent, and every morning I am La Salle, paddling to find the source of the river. So things are bound to happen. There, look; the sun is up and I have my oar in hand. Stand back. I am a busy man.

*

we could shine our light quietly like the sun

like the moon and stars lovely and silent

*

the doctors cut me open

but it wasn’t blood that came out

rather it was tiny james lee jobes

all of them gushing out

like snow melt streams up high

in the sierra nevada mountains

or like a psychologically sick orgasm

and so another day begins

*

when you buy humanitarian mousetraps

but forget to check them and the poor mouse

slowly starves to death anyway

*

Love is at the center of all things living.

—james lee jobe

A poem by Walter Pavlitch, 1955-2002.

Sarajevo Bear

The last animal

In the Sarajevo Zoo

A bear

Died of starvation

Because the leaves

Had fallen

From the trees

Because

The air was

Getting colder

So the snipers

Could more easily see

The few remaining people

Who were trying to

Feed it.

—Walter Pavlitch

Award-winning poet Walter Pavlich was, from the mid-1980s through the late-1990s, a regular presence in literary magazines and at literary festivals throughout the US. I knew him, he lived here in Davis, California. A charming fellow, he is missed.

Some Links, safe to click.

Ode to Herb Kent, a poem by Jamila Woods

Deep Water Trawling, a poem by Jorie Graham

This Birthday, a poem by E.J. Koh

art by Kaitlin Brito

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THANKS - JLJ