STANDING ALONE
by David Sklar
Image by the author
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Standing-Alone-Audio-1.mp3|titles=Standing Alone Audio]

……………………..The old hotel
between tall steel buildings
has reduced itself, out of embarrassment,
to a line.
……………………..The old hotel
has become a wooden post
around which children play tetherball
in the street.

 

 

WHY I THINK THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH
WRITING ANOTHER LITTLE NATURE POEM
by Barbara Crooker
Image by Kristin Herzog
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/WHY-I-THINK.mp3|titles=WHY I THINK]
This poem is just a “C” poem. It doesn’t have pretensions. Or big
ambitions. It doesn’t intend to claim new territory or corner
the market share. Or raise its ratings in a viewers’ poll. Capture
the glitter-ball trophy. It doesn’t want to be a rock ‘n roll singer.
It’s happy to be part of the faceless crowd, waving a lighter in the dark.

 

 

IN THE WOODS
by Chelsea Covington Maass
Image by Nicholas Bohac
[audio:http://www.hootreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/In-the-Woods.mp3|titles=In the Woods]

Sheila tried to convince her friends at recess to go along.

“See? That’s where they hide, in the trees behind the playground. Those are their beers! They’re watching, waiting to take us away. What will we do?” She pointed to a couple half empty brown bottles in the grass.

The girls standing nearby shrugged and walked toward the monkey bars.

She stood alone and kicked the dirt. Other kids never understood her games. Sheila wished there were strange men in the woods to steal her, hide her in a far off cottage.

They could read her fairy tales, and she would show them how to catch fireflies in
glass jars to use as nightlights. Together they would plant a rose garden that bloomed
pink the year round, forever.

 

—

David Sklar (http://davidwriting.com) began as a dot and continues to expand. He’s appeared places large and small, including a pending poem in Ladybug, a 21-word ghost story, and even comments on this poem.

Barbara Crooker’s poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Her books are Radiance, Line Dance, and More.

Chelsea Covington Maass is an MFA candidate in fiction at Rosemont College near Philadelphia. She is currently working on a country noir novel, set in her home state of Kansas.