901

THE LAST WOLF
By
Mary TallMountain

The last wolf hurried toward me
through the ruined city
and I heard his baying echoes
down the steep smashed warrens
of Montgomery Street and past
the ruby-crowned highrises
left standing
their lighted elevators useless

Passing the flicking red and green
of traffic signals
baying his way eastward
in the mystery of his wild loping gait
closer the sounds in the deadly night
through clutter and rubble of quiet blocks
I hear his voice ascending the hill
and at last his low whine as he came
floor by empty floor to the room
where I sat
in my narrow bed looking west, waiting
I heard him snuffle at the door and
I watched

He trotted across the floor
he laid his long gray muzzle
on the spare white spread
and his eyes burned yellow
his small dotted eyebrows quivered

"Yes," I said.
"I know what they have done."

DEVIL'S END
A Story of Savagery at the Finishing Line

The quiet stranger follows the crowds
through the city streets as
folk cheer gaily all around him
but he does not hear them
or the giggles of the children
or the beating drums
that throb in
syncopation with his heart

Passing quietly by, head down,
unnoticed by the crowd
he slips off eastward
to where the buzz of voices is loudest
and where the sidewalk swarms with people
crowded round the finishing line
as they wait to cheer the runners home,
all fatally unaware that
somewhere, on some grim sidewalk
behind them,
death is lurking; sniffing; waiting; watching,
ready for dreadful glory
ready to destroy

It is time...

A massive blast rips the air,
followed only by deathly silence
as rag-doll bodies
lie limp in the road...
then the screams begin

And a stunned world hears
and says: "Oh, my God... why?"

902

YOU GOT THE MAIN SEAT IN MY HEART
by Danny Miley Fan

My heart stops beating when I see you,,
I try to keep breathing, thinking of you,
Love hurts when you really love someone,
Everytime I see a photo or two my heart stops beating and its because of you,
You are getting me hurt,

Right now I´m thinking about you,
All I try to do is make you understand,
You are what makes me be like I am,

Can you please understand,
You are my world,
Reading this poem I hope you to be
Using this poem I try to reach your heart,
So I hope you understand, what my heart wants you to know.

YOU GOT THE MAIN SEAT IN MY LOO

Television viewers loathe, too. How they seethe
When I, your stereotype sweetheart espouses
Entertainment as onerous as the humpy
Robin Thicke singing about 'Blurred Lines' in us.
Kinkily making it hot throughout year one

In my skin-colored skimpy underwear;
No repute in my youtube beauty,
Groping him with my lusty foam hand.

Outdo masturbatory Lady Gaga, too?
No way! Why be too smutty, young epitome?
Very odious idea to see my Hannah
Montana, our popular faerie, agitate the
Achy Breaky Heart of my weary Daddy.

903

Sonnet LIX by William Shakespeare

If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child!
O, that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done!
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Whether we are mended, or whether better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O, sure I am, the wits of former days
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

Being old with mum - A verse to fifty-nine (which I now am)*

My mother died this date ten years ago
And much of me is drawn toward the loss
'X' is the mark of how I feel, to know
It meant absent or ten or even cross.
No child is wont to think when one is small
Each human life is precious but so brief.
Loss which occurs, have no regret at all
Let not the soul be e'er consumed with grief.
So thus can Sir, which art a reaper grim
Then rob the widower of his wife dear;
Unabashed job, horrid even for Him.
Raise the bowed head and face a future where,
Dare to be true, be quick, be good, be brave;
You're worth your mother's pride beyond the grave.

904

One evening, after a night at the theatre, two gentlemen were strolling down the street when they observed a well-dressed and attractive young lady walking in front of them. One of the men turned to the other and remarked, "I would happily pay $250 to spend the night with that woman."

Much to their surprise, the lady overheard the remark, turned around, and replied, "I'll take you up on that offer."

She had a smart appearance and pleasant voice, so after bidding his companion good night, the man accompanied the lady back to her apartment.

The following morning, as he was preparing to leave, the man handed her $125. The lady asked for the rest of the money, stating, "If you don't give it to me, I'm prepared to sue you for it."

He laughed and challenged her: "Oh, I'd like to see you succeed on these grounds."

Within a few days, he was surprised to receive a summons ordering his presence in court as a defendant in a lawsuit. He sped off to his lawyer and reported the full details of the case to him.

The lawyer said, "She can't possibly get judgement against you on such improbable grounds, but it'll be interesting to see just how her case will be presented."

The man duly appeared in court and the lady's lawyer delivered his preliminary address to the court as follows: "Your Honour, my client, this lady, is the owner of a piece of property, a garden spot, surrounded by quite a profuse growth of shrubbery, which property she agreed to rent to the defendant for a specified length of time for the sum of $250.

"The defendant took possession of the property, used it extensively for the purposes for which it was rented, but upon evacuating the premises, he paid only $125, one-half of the amount agreed upon. The rent was not unduly high, since it's restricted property, and we request that judgement be granted against the defendant to obtain full payment of the balance."

The defendant's lawyer was not only surprised but also impressed and amused by the unusual way his esteemed opponent had presented the case. Naturally, his defence would need to be rather different from the way he was originally aiming to present it. But he rose to the occasion.

"Your Honour," he said, "My client agrees that the young lady has a desirable piece of property, and that he did rent such property for a time and, in fairness, a good degree of pleasure was derived from the transaction. However, my client located a well on the property, around which he placed his own stones, sunk a shaft, and erected a pump, all labour being carried out personally by him. We suggest these improvements to the property were sufficient to offset the unpaid sum, and that the plaintiff was generously compensated for the rental of said property. We therefore ask that judgement not be granted."

The young lady's lawyer answered, "Your Honour, my client agrees that the defendant did indeed find a well on her property. However, had the defendant not known that the well existed, he would never have rented the said property. Also, upon evacuating the premises, the defendant removed the stones, pulled out the shaft, and took the pump with him too. In doing so, he not only dragged his equipment through the surrounding shrubbery, thus disarranging it, but he left the hole looking significantly larger than it was prior to his occupancy, making the property less desirable to others. We therefore ask, again, that judgement be granted for the agreed original sum of $250."

In his assessment and ruling, the Judge provided for two options: "A) Choose to pay the plaintiff the $125 balance you owe, or: B) Have the equipment detached from its current location and provide it to the plaintiff for damages."

The defendant wrote out a check immediately.

905

[For the 12-year anniversary of 9/11, Emily Dickinson's poem is anagrammed into a 12-line poem about grief and healing which also contains some relevant constraints, detailed below:]

After great pain a formal feeling comes--
The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;
The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore?
And yesterday--or centuries before?

The feet, mechanical, go round
A wooden way
Of ground, or air, or ought,
Regardless grown,
A quartz contentment, like a stone.

This is the hour of lead
Remembered if outlived,
As freezing persons recollect the snow--
First chill, then stupor, then the letting go.

[The 1st contraint is a simple acrostic on the poem's left side, spelling out a relevant word. The 2nd, more complex constraint pertains specifically to 9/11 and is revealed once we read down the poem's 2nd words, "Someone did touch me, because I felt power go out of me":]

Briefly Reflecting On Grief

Restoring someone dreamed in art
Eventually did cure dark hearts;
Creations touch a warmth I lost,
Uniting me with harmless ghosts,
Perhaps because their quiet flare
Ensures I am not frozen there.
Relief felt after stress can be
A power which enables me
To go on when I feel quite rotten;
It's out of sight, yet not forgotten:
None of the scars and hazards could
Get me to overlook the Good.