A silent thud touches the ground and a burst of leaves and birds shoots in the air like an Old Geyser. Your spine trembles in the wind, each vertebrae holds a bruise, a scrape, a broken limb— a wishbone to your thoughts, your horrible secrets you won’t let me see. You bear your rings like [...]
Wilderness (Mar/Apr 2009) RSS feed for this section
Little Things by Penny Luker
If the credit crunch has hit you and slapped you on the head, take the sunshine from the daffodils; it will stand you in good stead. If global warming warnings make you feel depressed then hear the children laugh and see the joy expressed. If the violence on our streets takes you deep into despair, [...]
The Wilderness Room by Anne Brooke
After her husband died, Elise began to visit the room he called the library more often. When Gerald had been alive, it had always been his domain and she’d never liked it. The windows were too small and sunlight never quite seemed to reach the tall shelves of books lining the wall from floor to [...]
The Red Tree by Carmen Alexandra
When that one red fire tree sticks above the rest on that autumn mountain, I’m glad you saw it, the extraordinary among the ordinary, so Wordsworthian, the special one and I want to be with you because I love your smell, your breath, your kiss, the passionate ones, and I want more, greedily, much more [...]
Haiku Nocturnal by Nancy Lee Shrader
Nocturnal means night Hunters and prey scurry here Death sounds in the night Mice scurry in fear Quietly he stalks his prey Who-o-o who-o-o cries the owl Leopard stalks the wild Crouching low he waits to strike In silence he pounced Jackal roams the bush A scavenger by nature Kills in dark of night Australia’s [...]
The Indigo Child by Theresa Cecilia Newbill
There’s a place in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, PA, along the lush greens and irregular mosaics of the meadows and cornfields where many say the embodiment of evil lives. This is Christian territory where drought, pests, and pain have infiltrated the residents of the once prosperous and fertile sleepy town. Some say it is a [...]
Call of the Wild by Nancy Lee Shrader
Coyotes’ night cry We hear the call of the wild They howl at the moon Buffalo roam here In the wide open spaces Indians were free Cowboys ride the range Longhorns graze on the prairie Wild mustangs run free Families leave their homes Wagon trains traveling west To make a new start Wild animals here [...]
A step off the trail by Patricia Wellingham-Jones
lands me in the undergrowth of new ideas Watching for stones and snakes flicking away flies pushing my way through alder and bracken I arrive at the stream curling through my head now at my feet in swirling riffles I never know where I will wind up when I take myself off the well-trod thought [...]
Something Alive by Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Something alive beneath the soil writhes and stretches Slithers between deep-rooted oaks its unfurred body The picnicker gathering acorns doesn’t feel the presence below her feet The creature stirs prepares to enter a world unprepared for its coming Patricia Wellingham-Jones has a longtime interest in ‘healing writing’ and the benefits people gain from writing and [...]
Is Your Mother Home? by Yvette Managan
That summer we threw snowballs at each other on July 4th. We skinny dipped in the ocean and walked between steep cliffs, on quivering rope bridges, while our sister screamed in terror. But mostly, that summer, we met Arnie the O.P. We camped all over Canada, approving of a site if the park allowed dogs [...]
Babbling Brook by Nancy Lee Shrader
Babbling brook winding slow As if it had nowhere to go Rippling waters soothing song Singing softly all the day long Wolf pack gathers near the brook Their blood lust they’ve forsook A thirst for water leads each nose Pure clean water a sweet repose Mother squirrel at water’s edge Family of rabbits emerge from [...]
Why I Love You by Danielle Jackson
Your mind is a forest: uninterrupted, wild, and when literary winds drift in words you plant them to blossom, recreating, and seasons changing, unstuck, an habitat for my secrets and our imaginings. You let me taste the sweet fruit, not sinful, but food to feed and heal me. I lean against the trees with roots [...]
Chasing The Dragon by Pat West
No one knows where this began—too much came together to create this crisis. She watched it turn in on itself like an opium addict who never stops chasing his first high. Craving more and more till what will happen can’t be stopped. The tonic of wilderness—a walk in the woods to refill a part of [...]
Table Mountain by Iris Macor
Once there was a beautiful place, a mountain shorn and seeded, carpeted with wild flowers that perfumed the air, the ground flat and even beneath my feet. I could walk to the edge and let my legs dangle, all the world spread below in green and gold, dream-haze heat rising from the pavement winding through [...]
JC 101 by Tiffany Kildale
To hear her tell it I was a hair twirling, gum snapping, airhead when we first met. She loves to tell the story; she has witnesses to back her up and can reenact our first meeting on a moment’s notice. No amount of disagreement on my behalf can prove her wrong. She thought I was [...]
The Life and Crimes of Neville Grimes by Penny Luker
Neville Grimes was not a pleasant man. Nor was he typical or normal in any way. He had started his working life at sixteen, taken all the overtime he could and saved. He invested and took out insurance schemes and counted his assets. Friday nights he enjoyed the most because he indulged in counting up [...]
Lost Boy by Penny Luker
She walked the city streets calling his name and showed his photograph to the police. She knocked on doors but it was all in vain. Her boy had left and so she paid the price, for she could no longer sleep when night came and she saw his face in every crowd. Her silent tears [...]
Send in the Clowns by Ann Tinkham
“Give me funny. What’s your idea of funny?” said Claire to the man sitting across from her in the studio of Cirque de Quirk. He had the big bulbous nose of a drunk, spiked jet black hair, watery eyes, and a half-moon mouth. “Funny to me is sneaking up behind the audience and saying ‘boo!’” [...]
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