Category Archives: Poems

Gary Binowski and Vivian Barrett live 35 years beyond my sight, past hope of recovery, the boy bouncing heel-to-toe to school down Blake Street, the other sulkily switching her broom of waist-length auburn hair, explaining yet again why she’s late. … Continue reading →

That Sunday, a sharp sun exposed otherwise unnotable, the Colts. They drew their footman from his weekly rest, in crisp September air, took their carriage downtown from an 89th Street brownstone, to watch an afternoon’s entertainment — foreigners, arriving from … Continue reading →

The huge band of black smoke broadens Against an azure sky, how limitless grief. No numbers yet number the dead, not ten- Or thirty thousand, the still uncounted souls Buried in a tangle of steel, a sea of glass, shoes, … Continue reading →

It is odd, how years beyond your death, I remain loyal. Now when I think of our last Goodbye — the hug that tempered your arms With steel despite your failing health — It renews my sense of goodness in … Continue reading →

for Christopher Nasri Khattar, 1951-1992 By Alyssa A. Lappen It’s late. Life has blown so quickly by, A gust of desert wind, a storm, puffed up In moments, gone, the air just as suddenly clear. But for the dune that … Continue reading →

for H.H.By Alyssa A. Lappen Magic, she said it was magic whenhis soul escaped the body, which soongrew hard, cold. He was gone, “Like that.”She expects him back, endlessly. “He’s not here, but where did he go?” She asks.As if … Continue reading →