the arrival in my mailbox of this month's TOLLING ELF makes October official--this month's has art by Debra Steckler and six poems by Hoa Nguyen, including (and excuse the reformatting of the last stanza!

THE MOOD

The mood here is serious
which would call for sitting
in a circle on pad-less chairs
Wear stripes but in dark colors
DON'T OVER ACT!
& cross your arms

I had a tan pleather jacket
large buttons and honestly
the jump cuts show
my button-down father
and a pouty look

I will be super-evil
Twinned male
dressed all alike
white & indistinguishable


*


next month: a surprise!