Into Chaos by Mimi DiFrancesca
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Untitled #19 by Larry Mawby
on this drizzly april morning
i sit and look outside my room
at the maple tree as rainwater
beads on the horizontal branches,
beads slowly growing too large
to hang on. they drop & soon
another pearly bead begins to form
in that place. it, too, will fall
as thus slowly, deliberately,
water makes its way
to the ground.
Law of Attraction for Dummies by Mimi DiFrancesca
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Untitled #18 by Larry Mawby
family movies from the 50’s:
like blowing out candles on
my fifth birthday cake.
today, my brother,
my sister, and i are alive,
along with some cousins.
everyone else is gone.
the images are gravy
on my plate, my brain
bread soaking them up,
my mind digesting
the people, the places,
now revising my memories
to include those images,
those feelings, those truths.
How Far by Mimi DiFrancesca
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Untitled #17 by Larry Mawby
i just trimmed
my finger nails:
i like ‘em short.
the iron crow
in the maple
still ignores me.
he seems to not
notice the yellow
daffodils, either.
those dead leaves
hang in the tree:
no breeze, no flutter.
a yellow pickup truck
drives by.
everything else
is still this morning.
is anything happening?
of course lots but not,
it seems, with this poem.
still, glad I trimmed
my finger nails:
i do like ‘em short.
Untitled #16 by Larry Mawby
it is april
and yet
some leaves remain on
the maples. withered
brown holdovers from
last season.
why?
deep in the algorithm
that governs all successful life is this instruction:
never go all in.
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In This Life by Mimi DiFrancesca
Untitled #15 by Larry Mawby
some assembly required
on this grey rainy morning
a cat sits on a bed, paws and tail
tucked in, a lump, eyes tracking
you as you move past.
while sitting in meditation
you see truth scream out
soundlessly. you try to lip read
but you cannot.
take these two & add another,
to make a third. spin the three
into a thread. weave the thread
into a cloth. assembly time:
ten or more minutes.
moisten the cloth,
use it to gently
clean your eyes.
you will see clearly.
Untitled #14 by Larry Mawby
power used unwisely,
by word or in deed,
produces unnecessary pain.
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Salt Bound by Cherry K Kowitz
The Pacific Ocean is a days travel by plane
Well worth the pain of masking ones self
Baby girl smiles
As an adventure completes itself
In a clean white hotel bed
This used to be home
And it always will be
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One Word by Mimi DiFrancesca
Untitled #13 by Larry Mawby
early this morning
i was dreaming
i was an older woman
living in a care facility
arguing with my daughter
about the activities
she wanted me do.
i became aware
that this was a dream
that i was editing.
i inserted & later cut out
several nice things like
jai alai and handbags.
then i awoke and
most of the dream
was snatched back
out of my memory
by my dreaming self.
what we have here is
an incomplete reconstruction,
much like an archaeological dig,
of that dream. my life in that dream
is not well understood by anyone
for who really understands
anyone, especially oneself?
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Unbidden by Mimi DiFrancesca
Untitled #12 by Larry Mawby
sometime soon a photon
from the star system we call
alpha centauri will enter
my right eye. maybe tonight.
it will have left alpha cen,
coincidentally, a day after
donald trump was elected
president of the united states.
that photon is among a large
group that came this direction,
some others of which will enter my
right eye, and my left eye, too.
an equally large number will hit
my nose, but i won’t notice them.
i will be distracted,
as i am now,
by wondering if you, gentle reader,
have experienced enough dramatic
tension after the mention of donald trump’s
name here a few lines ago.
as i said, it is
a coincidence that i thought about this photon
today, and then worked out when 4.37 light years ago would be.
just a coincidence,
meaning nothing to the photon or his buddies,
but, sadly it seems, something to you and i.
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I’m Fine by Mimi DiFrancesca
Untitled #11 by Larry Mawby
a net is a cluster
of holes kept apart
by strings.
fish net, bird net, hair net,
all holes separated by strings.
in physics, string theory
says everything is like that:
emptiness kept apart by strings.
[sort of]
but this is poetry, not science,
so our takeaway: a net is
a cluster of holes kept apart by strings.
fun fact: in a net,
if you cut a string,
you’ve made one less hole.
that is true, for sure.
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Stars & Wine by Mimi DiFrancesca
Eve Was Framed, by Mimi DiFrancesca
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Untitled #10 by Larry Mawby
when you read the poem,
aloud or in your mind,
appreciate the silences
between each word,
the smaller silences between
syllables & the smallest
soundlessness among the letters;
the cadenced silences
after commas, at line ends
& after periods.
as well as those between stanzas.
savor the silences you insert
when you take a breath,
marking your track through the poem.
until, finally, the poem
& the poet
ripen to the great silence
at the end.
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Leelanau Poets 
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