By Julieta Corpus Among the dormant orange trees Along the frontage road A graceful mockingbird, perched low, Begins his strident song. Below, on the ground, a faded tent Is flapping in the breeze While tattered clothes dry on a branch Beneath the Valley heat.

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Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky (After a Miami visit in these United States of immigration debate) The Haitian private-school guard sits in his golf cart Under a dry-leafed tree and Prevents wealthy white kids from being snatched In the money making business of kidnapping. He’s comfortable in French, Creole, Spanish and English. He’s alert; no kids taken [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky Sixty years ago The junior high school Principal told us to say The Lord’s Prayer, Think of Christ and Support the troops in Korea. We did. We knew nothing Of millions of dead Koreans, thousands Of dead Americans. The principal controlled The morning announcements. The generals controlled The blood in heat [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky I love turning pages in twilight. Easy to see, if the slanted orange light enters. More turned pages, and some squinting, Turning the book to catch light. But the orange goes, the words blur, And it is time to squint to the end of the chapter. Longer days, more pages, And [...]

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by Stan Raines The cooler breeze of this overcast afternoon which subdues the colors that blazed under the noonday sun and wafts the trees into dancing rhythms hails from the South and is the the dying breath of the storm that fifteen hundred miles away sheared mountain faces with murderous mudslides and floods, smothering and [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky So easy to kick feet up, The air working, so easy …. But four roses in thorns Under high sun; They’ll keep their red Until dusk, but some petals will drop. I settle deeper in the chair, My legs relax, but the roses, So close, even if in sun, heat … [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky Up and up, from the heated Mississippi River valley, Up and up into shade atop a hill …. Six in a yard welcome me. Three Southern women, legs apart, Skirts hiked, they seek a breeze, And an outdoor electric fan helps. Two men stand near. They work on a chainsaw. A [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky Above the Rio Bravo, the Mexican side, The levee path, dry and cracked, early Summer heat. Chipped concrete steps, dropping a level, So much brush, thin, waving, weedy …. The steps end at the level, End in trash, next to Mexican-placed Warnings that caution crossers of Swirling pools, currents, unseen depths [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky Border city Matamoros. Hundreds in a wet line on the sidewalk outside the American Consulate. Papers in hand, interview soon, and just maybe, permission to cross the bridge. I avert my eyes. Fortune of birth has kept me from the line.

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by Rudy H. Garcia A lady lives so fair in thee Tell me… or maybe… could it an Angle be? And if by grace it shall be so I feel, I think, I feel, I know The spirit who does dwell inside of thee Is kind and Godly, for this, I see. I know the [...]

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By Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky Off the all-night bus, She stands by the pay phone, Dials, drops coins and waits …. No answer, no one at the end of the phone line, No one at the end of the bus line …. The coins come back, Bouncing, and one drops to the ground When she takes [...]

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By Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky Snow becomes mush, Dafoldils and crocuses Push up and out into Clouds, hazy sun, While Spring touches Winter in New England, The Atlantic always near …. She sleeps indoors, Forgets the seasons, Forgets the visitors …. And by the Gulf I look, hourly, To see if one bluebonnet Has blued above [...]

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky” No give. No compromise. No quarter. Continuation of anger, Bitterness, hurt, betrayal … To the end … Years gone, Years to come, Years ….

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky The only way to put it: Black-brown-oily grime. Grime on the driveway, walls, Floor, tools, The fix-all-cars garage. Deep inside, in front of A resting mechanic, Sprawled in a chair, Grime on shirt, cap, pants,

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by Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky A half century of opera, The Metropolitan, The sponsor Texaco, The voice Milton Cross …. My mother, stretched on the couch, Book to side, In the opera, Far into the opera,

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by Julie Corpus If the R.V. is a-rockin’ Do not come a-knockin’– The missus and I are fornicatin’. Now don’t look so shocked; We’ve got working parts, But the baby machine ain’t operatin’ What else can we do Besides eat and screw? We ain’t gettin’ any younger. Cocoon is a lie! And, hey, my neighbor’s [...]

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by Gene Novogrodsky From summer’s heat and exhaust fumes To winter’s chill and the same exhaust fumes, The grey cur takes its corner, Sometimes on the sidewalk, Sometimes on a lawn, Sometimes in the street, A living cur, thinning, wanting food and water, Thinning, and still feinting at motion, any motion ….

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Poems by Gene Novogrodsky Mouths Never in light, Never in awake. The depth of a dream kiss. A dream embrace, A dream passion, Uncomplicated, Correct, Together, Before the light …. Hands On Elbows Guiding them To doctors’, To stores,

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By Gene Novogrodsky Transition Twilight passed, Sliver of silver moon, Dim outline in the south …. Caged, Leashed and Free She walks with a yellow bird in a dark cage, The cage swinging, bird perched on a rod. She walks with a white duck, leashed with clothesline, Behind her, needing a pull, sometimes. A white [...]

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from Gene’s Notebook …the skinny woman comes from under the underpass, and I tell her that the homeless shelter beats the underpass. “No, it doesn’t. I don’t want anyone telling me what to do,” and she goes back to the underpass’ damp wall. …and the young man is walking around at dusk. I hand him [...]

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by Gene Novogrodsky For Brenda N. Riojas Black curls. A cousin’s granddaughter, A little girl, identification Israeli. And as she grows, She will hear hate of Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims, Hate severe, Hate in jokes, Or, might she hear words of Commonality?

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by Gene Novogrodsky He kept a ten in his wallet, Had for years, just in case, And when he died, we opened His wallet and the ten Was still there ….

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by Ruth Wagner Pushed Aside We see the wizened woman With a cigarette butt in wrinkled mouth. She nods and pushes her grocery cart. He, about a half block behind her, Pushes his cart. They travel together: Protection? Companionship? A week earlier another of the “Pushed aside,” she, older now, With peppered hair, Sitting on [...]

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by Gene Novogrodsky Snow covered the small town, And my father walked me into The wooden-floored library, Where he told me to stand before The librarian’s desk, And tell her that I wanted a card. She had to look down To see me, my jacket dotted With snowflakes …. Books, ever books, Many stories about [...]

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by Gene Novogrodsky A U-Haul passes, and I wave; They lamely return the wave, Away by the second, And far from mind and space they pass …. A U-Haul passes, and I wave; They’re tired, but energetically return the wave. Away by the second, To come to mind, to be recalled …. A U-Haul passes, [...]

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