CASTING SHADOWS

The day greys and yellows around us
stops the birds singing.
We feel the tightness of this new silence
as the air cools rapidly.
We know not to stare
so I am holding a colander to the sun
casting shadows on the ground.
So many tiny solar bodies eclipsing, emerging.

A photograph to capture the day
to remember we were alive
we saw it.

I fear it will be too small
but when you show me
I am holding that eclipse in the palm of my hand.

-Soo Finch

Ring of Fire – A Sonnet

When dusk comes in the middle of the day
The sun reduced to a pale ring of fire
What were the ancient learned wise ones to say
When scared superstitious people inquire

That their actions attracted the Gods ire
And now they have to pay the bloody price
To avoid consequences most dire
The most precious they must sacrifice

Or the world will turn to cold barren ice
Devoid of all the Sun’s life giving warmth
No longer this Aegean paradise
But eternal night as in the far north

As the sacrifice bled and died they did say
Now the sun will rise again day after day

-©RedCat

Eclipse
(with a nod to The Bard)

Earth pulls its curtain
across the moon tonight,
like a play ending as actors
take their bows.
All the world’s a stage
and we, players;
lives eclipsed by tragedy or comedy.
Stars moan, a Greek chorus
accompanying our anxiety.
Candescent crimson,
the moon pulses like blood
behind a gauzy scrim,
assuring us we’re alive,
though the world
shuts down around us.

Lonely moon, wrapped
in earth’s shroud:
death will not win out,
anymore than fallen actors
in Hamlet or some other play
will not rise again to play their parts.

In misfortune, we take our bows,
utter lines once more:
words given us to speak,
parts entrusted to us to play.
The curtain rises and falls,
the show goes on. The moon
does not keep silent
in the hush of mist and veil.
Already, a sliver of light slashes
down, shouting the Prologue.

–Gayle J. Greenlea

Ode to a Blood Moon

Shy moon,
resisting your call to grandeur;
this rising a rare blush
from your repertoire.
Red hush stills the tops of trees
whose leaves camouflage
your restless climb,
a “bodas de sangre”
arranged before the clash of stars.
Unwilling Icarus, you fly,
set aflame in darkness.
Murderous moon, red
with dread and blood,
vertiginous beauty
sailing high above the trees,
deceiving death.

* “Bodas de Sangre” (“Blood Wedding” is the title of a play by Federico Garcia Lorca

– Gayle J. Greenlea

Eclipse

In this pale gold heat
and silence of birdsong
of wind in the long grass

would we ever know
that a shadow effaces
a tiny piece of the sun?

Chaffinch chirrups
the oriole asks
the same questions as always

and the redstart dips
in and out of the barn
feeding hungry mouths.

Here and now
only these moments of pain or joy
touch the deep chords
sounding the conch shell
of the heart.
-Jane Dougherty

Coincidence

400 is the magic figure
where size and distance cancel out
moon fits into sun like a child’s puzzle
as if we’d ever been in doubt
of why we all play planetary ring o’ roses
as the neighboring rock we tow
cosies up to daddy
sending us shivering in her shadow

dark column racing towards us
silence, birds fled to the trees, knowing
the fear of our forebears,
last spark extinguished,
blank woe

until the diamond glows
brilliant again, the sun a perfect sphere
and, the paraphernalia of pin-hole cards
and colanders consigned
to cupboards, search the calendar to find
another opportunity to peer
to heaven and chance upon
the mathematics some intelligence designed

-Kathryn Southworth

Kathryn
March 20th 2015

Bios and Links

-Priyanka Sacheti
is a writer and poet based in Bangalore, India. She grew up in the Sultanate of Oman and previously lived in the United Kingdom and United States. She has been published in many publications with a special focus on art, gender, diaspora, and identity. Her literary work has appeared in numerous literary journals such as Barren, Terse, The Cabinet of Heed, Popshot, The Lunchticket, and Jaggery Lit as well as various anthologies. She’s currently working on a poetry and short story collection. She can be found as @atlasofallthatisee on Instagram and @priyankasacheti on Twitter.