art music poetry

PEG ZERO GHETTO WALK

cruising down ellice,
reggie collecting drug money,
pawn shops on every corner,
laundromat stinkin’ and ugly,
-25 outside, snow blinding bright
reggie he talking with street punk
doing laundry living normal and clean
he tall and wiry and insane and precise
old lady doing laundry counting pennies
ragged clothes cursing in foreign language
reggie short on his take this week in trouble
he sees old lady arguing with owner no money
walks over pays for her laundry she afraid but not for long
he walks her home carries laundry bags right up to her apartment
has tea they talk and smoke cigarettes apartment small but very clean
she from portugal he from barbados they together in peg zero thirty years apart
the wind howling through the streets,
the snow piled high on every corner,
he alive,
she alive,
late on rent,
late on drug money
ain’t it a kick?

_Spending_

The window blinds carve
thick black lines across the carpet
and the clocks in each room
each tick slightly differently; mildly frantic
you are stretched across your
low bed, “Thinking,” you say, “making space
for myself”
banded darkness underscoring
the tendons of your hands and the alternation
between us.
Your roommate’s eternal music
glistens like a plate of marbles
rolling under the door
from the next room,
the depth of our quiet
pouring like oil
into the shared
bowl of afternoon

SHOULD UNIVERSAL RESTRAINT EVOLVE

Should universal restraint evolve,

Subsequent understandable rage enslaved

Secretly until radical employment

Shall usurp respectable engagement.

Under rounded ecological skies

Undulating ranges exude scenes

Unusually rapturous evoking sighs

Upon reminiscent eminent schemes

Reaping engorged secular usury

Reckoned equally since unsued

Rituality ends social unity,

Richened, ending somewhere unused.

Exit sonorous ubiquitous reason;

Exhale stale uciferous rhyme;

Extol stone unioned ruins;

Emerge solicitous, unanimous, rhined.

Clay Derryberry

Well, My greatest claim to fame is my brother. We were raised on a small dairy farm between Verona and Anes Station Tennesse (just north of Lewisburg) by loving diligent country parents. They were not greatly creative though mama played the guitar some, and Daddy did things like make us yoyo’s and candle sticks from wood. Anyway, I was introduced to poetry and the love of it by a highschool English teacher, Catherine Adams and have been dabbling in it ever since. I am a graduate of David Lipscomb College; have preached for 30 years and have managed the Ellington Airport in Lewisburg since 1981 where I live with my wife Dianne who has been very supportive of my meager efforts.

The Gambler (word count – 113, line count – 27)

The man lived in a jar
with twelve pennies on its lid
money close over his head
entirely outside his existence
A quarter to save his life

If he manages
to reach through the barrier
he will be a copper penny more
than a man half dead
struggling in between
and above his head

The mad died in a jar
with twelve pennies on its lid
Lincolns by the dozen
fair men outside his existence
A quarter to save his life

If the fair men heed his words
from half a world away
he’ll remain a copper penny more
than a man half dead
an odds-on favorite
and above his head

Bio:
Tom {WordWulf} SternerHowe, a native son of Colorado, lives in Lafayette, Colorado with wife Karen, her two sons and his youngest son, Zedidiah. Family and riding his Harley Davidson fill up the hours left over from creative enterprises. He has been extensively published in independent literary magazines including Howling Dog Press/Omega, Skyline Literary Review and Flashquake. He is winner of the Marija Cerjak Award for Avant-Garde/Experimental Writing 2001, 2002 & 2003. His first novel, ‘Madman Chronicles: The Warrior’, is available at his website: http://pages.prodigy.net/sterner-howe. Music from the novel may be accessed at http://truefire.com/list.html?store=original_music&viewauthor=3554 or www.lulu.com/TomSternerHowe

Contact Information:
Tom (WordWulf) SternerHowe
1305 Centaur Circle
Lafayette, Colorado 80026
720-890-7217
***