Calliope’s Windfall Cadralor I. Autumn Amity Nonpolar effect hydrophobic leaves aggregate water droplets may hydrogen bonds join us in molecule cages. II. Goslings Noontime disruption thundershowers high above goose and gander honk once we danced in spring rains mimicked nature’s celebrants. III. Hades’ Decan Sizzling zodiac liquid smoke spareribs third March decan caution we share Pisces confidence tap psychic propensities. IV. Worm Moon in Libra Loving being loved full moon eclipse in Libra balanced relationships I recall picnics, plucking fresh flowers, crushing on girls. V. Cathedral Gargoyle waterspouts downpours fill granite gutters cleanse Notre-Dame steps may our ile de la cité stroll recapture memories. Matching Tattoos Vera woke early today but not alone last night she’d hammered her way bar to bar, allowing men & women to ply her with drinks, twerk & grind across low lit dancefloors before taking her leave & exploring other haunts. I should know; she picked me up & we spent the night carousing— a bevy of mixologists alleged We hooked up on midnight’s backside when starshine casts cosmic freckles upon damp pavement & sunrise heralds fill ebon streets with song; I remember lifting her inside a taxi, squinting open bloodshot eyes simultaneously at dawn; confused yet unruffled. Vera showered in her slip, dressed in an Uber sipped java as we drove club to club retracing after hour footsteps to likely saloons, 24-hour cafés & her parked car. We discovered her sedan at the Ink Masters Tats chrome hubcaps stripped, tires intact, radio blaring; she dropped me off out General Electric, my faux employer, listened to graveyard peacocks cry & scold like babies from Oakhill Cemetery across the street as we exchanged phone numbers neither of us intended to dial. Arc de Triomphe Pilgrims High school voyagers, premarital couples, & collage dropouts backpack through Normandy fields, nibble on exotic cheese sample cuisine, contemplating a side trip to the Aquitaine in search of Limousin beef, duck foie gras, rich, red Bordeaux wine & a chance to explore historical landscapes from the French Alps to the Pyrenees always atop Charlemagne’s shoulders each day celebrated like St. Crispin’s feast, Agincourt groupies, rambling towards Paris trekking like bicyclists across the Champs-Élysées. Wistful Entreaties Take me back to cherry tree orchards blossoming throughout Santa Clara Valley in the 1960’s, a time inspired before birthing Silicon Valley replaced fertile fields and fruit bearing groves with glass, steel, cement, tar, high technology, and computer chips. Free me from yesteryear’s idealized social diaspora perceived through a senior citizen’s vantage point; mindful of lessons learned, responsibility accepted, swing wide youthful curiosity, advancement’s doorway, acclaim achievements true, own up to virtue questionable. Help me ignore shadows, recalling bad decisions, regretting dump yard expeditions, adding rubbish to landfill— future housing track foundations—major source of toxins, leachate and greenhouse gases, tolerating Eichler’s radiant heating, San Jose’s mounting smog. Let me recall small budget pleasures frequenting drive-in movie theaters dotting the valley’s agricultural perimeter, where Steven’s Creek Blvd gave rancher’s a thoroughfare and the Winchester Mystery House marked the edge of town. Grant me childhood bliss hiking amid Alum Rock hills, searching for treasure filled caves—Joaquin Murrieta’s haunts— or exploring abandoned shafts inside the condemned New Almaden quicksilver mines, oblivious to dangerous rotting timbers and poisonous cinnabar ore. Permit me quaint mind expansion…just limit my high to Geritol enhancement; shorten day long treks through San Jose to mailbox journeys, and venerate fingertip entertainment as a respectable alternative to clubbing it, theatre premiers, lowriding kicks, or Mount Umunhum trysts in parked cars. “O’zapft is!” (“It is tapped!”) Löwenbräu flows, Oktoberfest beer steins raise, village voices shout, “Proust!” celebrant couples dress in Bavarian garb from Lederhosen to dirndls, flap arms like chickens, and twist ageless bodies to brass bands playing oom-pah-pah music drifting beer tent to beer tent sampling warm pretzels dipped in mustard, savoring smoked brätwurst, sauerkraut, and käsespätzle, sharing gingerbread hearts, inhaling apple strudel, basking in camaraderie, concluding with a horserace recollecting— honoring—Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Theresa of Saxony-Hildburghausen nuptials.
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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 Lothlórien Poetry Journal, Ekphrastic Review, Synchronized Chaos, and Sparks 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.
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Sterling Warner’s Author Website