ORDINARY STRATA (COTTAGE GROVE)


Bumps or cracks on the sycamore

The swiftest thinking about slow thought

Pushing an empty stroller home

Text making faux amends

Play the scene in your head again

Love lasts apart from action

Disregarding the way things might have been

 


ORDINARY STRATA (COVENTRY)


Look over by the curbside wine can

Free tree in the tree line

Your pupils contract when you give up

A “window to the soul” shuts

Can we make it home before the cumulonimbus do?

Steer around a smooshed squirrel

A dearth of mentors




ORDINARY STRATA (LAMBERTON ROAD)


Mushroom prints on the internet

An ad for Congress in the party lawn

Waking up early like you said you would

Burnt sweet potatoes cookie smell

Man discusses a new home brew

Guilt for ignoring the summons stews

Winter insisting woof woof come too

CARYL PAGEL is the author of a collection of essays, Out of Nowhere Into Nothing (FC2), and two books of poetry, Twice Told (University of Akron Press) and Experiments I Should Like Tried At My Own Death (Factory Hollow). She lives in Cleveland.