Campus Silk
Cynthia’s form-fitting silk dresses
struck to her body like plastic wrap as she
pirouetted across campus in pointe shoes
intentionally faced against wind gusts
pushing auburn strands of hair over cheeks
attracting an audience both men & women
lounging on the quad’s turf, eating fast food
lunches, listening to transistor radios, preparing
for exams, or writing to significant others—
past and present—in leather bound journals
filled with narrative poetry, whimsical sketches,
detailed shopping lists & occasional birthdays;
night & day, twelve months each year
she carried a collapsible umbrella, ready
to spread & protect her gorgeous locks
from rain & snow, trading silk summer
dresses for diva scarves that showcased her
face like a multi-colored picture frame.
Cascadia
Whitewater frothing
like hydrogen peroxide
foam sliding between rocks
boulders gurgling, gushing,
below natural bridges
linking embankments
on unstable shores where
wooden piles driven 42 feet
into mud, sand, bedrock and silt
once stood tall and defiant
yet remain like ragged stumps
torn off below kneecaps
where grubs burrow between spikes
as bright yellow birch leaves
float overhead then settle
like a golden patchwork quilt
upon stones in a dry ice waterway
swirling at the base of a ghost pier.
Dharavi Wall Reclaimed
Rickety realism centered
a rainbow fire escape
between two gigantic heads
Mother Theresa calls out
habit covering snowy egret hair
left hand cupped over her cheek
knotted veins and wrinkled skin
accentuated by a decaying hotel’s
brick buttresses and drippy motor—
the graffiti virtuoso’s preferred canvas.
Facing the Calcutta nun on the right
Mahatma Gandhi calmly listens
to her whisper litanies and preach
about merits of suffering and her
“call within a call” as cars below burn rubber
do doughnuts, and emit smoke, delighting
penniless pedestrians with inner city theatre
sans Chelsea Square nosebleed seats;
pervasive, sustaining, his presence
outshines all street thespians and saints.
Cosmos Conductors
Stratosphere lights glimmer
dying amid comets & meteors
racing for eternal magnificence;
Saturn’s rings appear as ridged
as steel-hooped cage crinolines
relentlessly orbiting the planet.
Stargazing eyes wander, locate
ices, silicates, rocks & gasses
winking & twinkling the heavens
like angry sparks between wheels
& tracks from lost stellar railroads
barely even flickering at dawn.
Time elapses & spectacles dim
we embrace falling stars, suck on
helium balloons & talk like high
wire munchkins anxious to fly
on any trapeze without net, certain
as Galileo, optimistic as Carl Sagan.
Like fresh water washing filth & grime
off coal miner bodies, sunbeams splash
onto alley ways & trash cans, illuminate
abandoned train depots; foreboding shadows
ground nocturnal astronomers, provide a hiatus
telescopes at rest & celestial secrets on hold.
French Doors
We slipped behind Raylene’s
family room French doors
backs to the wall, she embraced
my inexperience like a prize fly-ball
caught at Yankee Stadium, repositioned
my shoulders, easing them into her own,
kissing my neck, leaving a hickey
I wore like a badge of courage
provoking classmates’ consternation who
confined young love to dreams & imagination.
From French doors to French kissing
we advanced without rules, ignored
norms, believed our world would endure
more than an evening; Raylene pressed
her face to mine, lost both pearl earrings
in throes of passion, found days later
when her mother vacuumed the carpet,
stroking shag pile, uncovering secrets
that had become common knowledge:
Raylene’s door evolved & swung both ways.
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Sterling Warner’s Brief Biography
An award-winning author, poet, and former Evergreen Valley College English Professor, Sterling Warner’s works have appeared many literary magazines, journals, and anthologies including Danse Macabre, Trouvaille Review, Lothlórien Poetry Journal,Ekphrastic Review, andSparks of Calliope. Warner’s collections of poetry/fiction include Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento Mori: A Chapbook Redux, Serpent’s Tooth, Flytraps, Cracks of Light: Pandemic Poetry & Fiction 2019-2022, Halcyon Days: Collected Fibonacci, Abraxas: Poems (2024), and Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories. Presently, Warner writes, hosts/participates in “virtual” poetry readings, turns wood, and enjoys retirement in Washington.
