Yellow Mama E zine

ANXIOUS AMBLE

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by Michael Keshigian

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The trees, on this late summer’s eve,
coerced him into believing
they could hear his thoughts,
sense his angst as they bent over
the path upon which he strolled
while night climbed slowly
down their limbs
to absorb fading shadows
that danced the trail he trespassed
as wind whimpered a whistle.
The ample leaves flailed
and quivered their percussive timbre,
a collective voice
that seemed to answer
his queries when breezes stoked the air,
though silenced when the setting sun
stifled the airstream locomotion,
mitigating nature’s delicate response.
With everything quiet, everything dark,
the remembrance of another evening’s saunter
illuminated his mind,
remembrance of an evening filled with laughter
and happy hearts,
bare feet splashing in an ocean puddle,
a romantic caress; what heavy,
hurried steps he took to keep pace
with this bright image consuming him
until it too faded into the current darkness,
his saunter eventually leading him
to an expanse of sky at path’s end,
a clouded, misty sky,
where even the stars, night’s children,
those glimmers of hope
against infinite night,
were missing as well.

 

 

     Michael Keshigian's latest poetry collection, Poems from the Sky, was recently released by Cyberwit.com and is available on Amazon. He has recently been published in The Tipton Poetry Journal, Studio One, Smoky Quartz, Panoply, among many others and has been nominated seven times for the Pushcart Prize and three times for Best of the Net.

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      KJ Hannah Greenberg is eclectic. She’s played oboe, participated in martial arts, learned basket weaving, and studied Middle Eastern dancing. What’s more, she’s a certified herbalist, and an AP College Board-authorized teacher of calculus. 

Her creative efforts have been nominated once for The Best of the Net in poetry, once for The Best of the Net in art, three times for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for poetry, once for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for fiction, once for the Million Writers Award for fiction, and once for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. To boot, Hannah’s had more than forty-five books published and has served as an editor for several literary journals.

Check out her latest short fiction collection, An Orbit of Chairs:

https://www.amazon.com/Orbit-Chairs-KJ-Hannah-Greenberg/dp/B0CWMMM73T

 Within its pages are two tales originally published at Yellow Mama: "Alive Another Day" and "Light Notes."

Channie's new art book, Life's Colors, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGCTHJ6Z, just launched (hit "read sample" button). It contains images originally published by Yellow Mama.