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| "Tracings" by Sandy Beach "The Seer on the Wooden Pillar" by Paul Belz "The World Made from Cacophany" by Paul Belz "Unrequited" by John Birkbeck "Silence" by Curtis Church "In Paradise" by Rosemarie Crisafi "Just a Walk in the Park" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Columbus Circle Crooner" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Lobster Duck" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Sloppy Hair in Sunset Years" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Logarithms" by Tony D'Arpino "Lila" by Adriana DiGennaro "A Year of Mourning" by Ruth Dombrow "Conversations with a Naked Ascetic" by Alison Eastley "The Book of Scorpio" by Alison Eastley "Cloud Formations" by Rich Ives "Infancy" by Edith Kur "Hunt, 1831" by Joanne Lowery "Cold Turkey" by Joanne Lowery "Clark Gable as Muse" by Joanne Lowery "Accident in 16 Parts" by Joanne Lowery "Little Pears" by Joanne Lowery "After We Bought a Computer in 1996" by Shawn McLain "Seven Blind Men and the Elephant" by Ram Mehta "What I Want" by Corey Mesler "Stagnation" by Samia Ouederni "On The Walls:" by Marissa Ranello "Urban Cycle" by Marissa Ranello "Midnight Shift" by Cortny Riblett "Thief" by Cortny Riblett "When the Beach is Mine Alone" by Harding Stedler "Enter Stage Left" by Harding Stedler "Superman and Darlene Smith" by Deborah Stinson "Per-millennial Skyline" by Elizabeth Kate Switaj "Under the Umbrella" by Sara Toruno |
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| Lobster Duck |
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| The stiff-necked princess sailed sleek and willowy,
out-stretched out upon her ice pond throne. Until lobster duck chugged her way. She scrambled off . . . ungracefully evicted. The remaining geese and ducks waddled past pond icebergs to greet Doggy and me at pond's edge queing for my portable bread line. Doggie peeked from behind my legs until a frightened goose sprinted away, Valiant dog realized that geese were supposed to fear him. And so began our ritual of strolling pondside, and our daily routine of visits from geese and ducks, and Doggie's slippery snow sprint after them. One day, after dispensing proud princess again, lobster duck marched onto shore. A head shorter than all the other birds, this dumpy faced, lobster neck duck swaggered out of the water and rumbled along stony path. She greeted me by holding my eyes to a magnetic visual grip as strong as any handshake I'd ever experienced from a macho man. Doggie sensed the moment to assume top breed status. He pranced over toward lobster duck. The Quasimodo of the bird world had no patience for imposters and, despite the added weight of a score of grotesque warts stapled to beak and face, ran doggie off along with his web toed pals. She bumped up next to me and rubbed her grainy bill on my knee, then, glared up like a heavyweight boxer at weigh in time. Every glacial day, at the same time, during that New England February, doggie sprinted and Lobster duck greeted me with a long stare. As the premature thaw erased the snow, I missed her. I approached a busy duck feeder who reminded me of a spinning water sprinkler scattering bread instead of water. I asked her, "Have you seen the lobster duck?" "No, I haven't. I'm kinda worried about her." We looked at each other like old friends who'd lost a chum. |
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