Yellow Mama E zine

Hermitage

 

by Craig Kirchner

 

Crows busy with unworked seed,

laugh and leave toward evening.

 

Leaves of fall, fast-forwarded,

turn red like the blood fingering across

the green linoleum kitchen floor

after the thud of the back of your head

split like a too-ripe pumpkin.

 

The trees in the yard mourn the wood

you’d stacked anticipating winter,

as it dries, rots, quietly decays.

 

Aprils later it splinters, skips off

across tan, fallow fields

in a cold wind, wet

with the rustle of black wings.

 

 

       Craig Kirchner lives in Florida because his granddaughters are there. He loves the aesthetics of writing, has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels and has had three poems nominated for a Pushcart.  He has been published in Chiron, Yellow Mama, Main Street Rag, and more than 100 others.  Craig houses 500 books in his office and about the same number of poems on a laptop; these words help keep him straight. He can be found at Bluesky.

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       Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received. She is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama.