INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Ali Znaidi
Silvia Scheibli
Richard Gartee
Deji Adesoye
Shutta Crum
Solomon Musa Haruna
Alan Britt
Fahredin Shehu
Laszlo Slomovits

Robert Nisbet
Gale Acuff
Rekha Valliappan
Fred Wolven
Aneek Chatterjee
Alex Ferde
Michael Lee Johnson
Jennifer Burd
Running Cub
Duane Locke

Helen Gyigya

Ann Arbor Review

is an independent

International Journal & ezine

Copyright (c) 2020 Francis Ferde
All rights revert back to each poet.
--editor / Southeastern Florida
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AAR history note:  in print 1967 - 1980.  Irregular publications 1980 - 2004.  As ezine 2004 - present. Most of 53 years all together....

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staff:
Francis Ferde
Silver Grey Fox
Running Cub
Fred Wolven
 

Submissions via e-mail:

poetfred@att.net

LIFE IS SEVERE
(Life is severe.)
                  ~Duane Locke

Staying alive is exhausting.
It just is.

MELANCHOLY OF THE JALAPEÑO PEPPER
(For Paul B. Roth)

The white bud
that oozes forth
with blind tissues
like coral tentacles
strains against dusk
for days
until out pops
a diminutive melancholy
smooth
& parrot green.

But this little
scorpion of fruit,
this molecule
of sun
stuns
every word
drifting aimlessly
across the cypress swamp
of my brain.

So, do I shiver
like a Japanese maple
during a summer gust,
or do I melt
like a slug
on a July Maryland sidewalk
into a pool
of absence?

Actually, I’m quite
content to rummage
the barracuda
wedding gown of amnesia
for that capricious
chameleon who’s been
known to emerge
from random droughts
at the whimsical
of a hat.

WITHOUT YOU

I have nothing if I don’t have you—
I’d collapse my skull beneath your
octopi tentacles stalactiting my
enlightenment,
if that’s what it takes.

That’s fair.
But, still, I’m an explorer who’s
found himself in the middle
of some alien typhoon & holding
on for dear life, for crying out loud,
holding on for dear life,
for crying out loud.

PRIVILEGE DEMANDS COMFORT

Stronger than the pitchman’s geometric
tie jackhammering his gig line.

Stronger than faith which sometimes
contains the force of ten tsunamis.

Stronger than fortune teller Wall Street
or fortune teller Wall Street Congress.

Stronger than catbird feathers cooking-
spray-peeled from the sticky pads of fate.

Stronger than strong. Stronger than what
anyone expected, except the top 2%

armed with the most classified seedling
of all: knowledge before the fact. Think

where we’d be if everyone had knowledge
before the fact. Okay, facts don’t exist,

but knowledge before the event? Think
about that.

Alan Britt, Reisterstown, Maryland