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EDITORIAL

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LAGNIAPPE

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Four Poems
by Tina Brown Celona


The Grey Penguin Poems

1.

The grey penguin
Looks for his wife.
He is alone on the ice
And he is lonely for his wife.

He is lonely
for his wife
so he dives.

A leopard seal tries to eat him
But the grey penguin
Is too fast.
He knows he must survive
To rejoin his wife.

So he sits on the ice.


2.

The grey penguin
Is in my hair. The grey penguin
Is in my wife’s hair.

The grey penguin
Is a blonde.

I fought with myself
To close my eyes.

Szzz! said the lightning.

I give you thirty seconds
To locate
The grey penguin.


Poem for Girls

You can read all about yourself in this poem
And that’s why it’s fun.
Everyone wants to be in this poem
But this poem is only for girls.


Stanzas in Meditation

The poem is like a farm
You finish before five.
The chickens are like commas.
There’s nothing sacred
About our blue tractor.
People like metaphors
So we implant them. Your eye is
A tiny hole. A gift of meat.

The farm is like a poem
Torturing us for fun.
The apples are oysters
Cracking open the trees.
They’ve done nothing wrong
Except shelter bees.
Hard work is a selfish dream.
That’s what the bees hum.


Trixies Nails Ned, And

Nancy is pissed.
She throws a bomb in the igloo
And the igloo explodes and there’s snow everywhere.
The grey penguin waddles over
To his devoted wife, who’s
Cowering in a corner.
He grasps her firmly by the beak
And leads her into the
Snow antechamber.