Cathy Stevens Pratt
Response

Assumptions
By Kamika Cooper
Inspiration piece

don’t make assumptions

about how i am feeling

based on how i look

for all that you know

i have become hallowed out

empty yet breathing

you are fooled by smiles

you want something more from me

better look elsewhere

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“Checking on the Owls”
Azro Pratt
Response

Checking on the Owls
By Angi Lewis
Inspiration piece

Every day for weeks that August,
we rode our bikes down the road to check on the owls.

There were two downy young ones
and their watchful mother.

We saw the young ones only a handful of times.
They sat on separate branches, perfectly still
except for the strange turning of their heads.

We saw the mother once.
She swooped low around the corner,
then disappeared.

We rode a little farther and stopped.

I caught sight on her on the branch of a fir tree
where she sat fixed, focused.

Later,
when we hadn’t seen the owls for several days,
and we figured they’d moved on-
we still rode down there.

We still said we were going to check on the owls.

It came to mean looking for what presented itself:
the cottonwood leaves flashing like coins,
the dark thread of the creek,
and pieces of torn sky, hung between the trees
like scraps of blue paper.

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Note: All of the art, writing, and music on this site belongs to the person who created it. Copying or republishing anything you see here without express and written permission from the author or artist is strictly prohibited.

“Blurs and Bulges”
Cathy Pratt
Response

Of Blurs and Bulges
By Pippa Possible
Inspiration piece

“Is that all you have to say to me?”

There is a silence.
A silence
blurs and
bulges.

“I didn’t know you would be here.”

He bursts
out eagerly,
makes me
listen
closely
to every
word.

“You could still have welcomed me.”

“I do”
He erupts in
a deafening yell.
A deafening yell,
elongates into a
sweeping,
brassy,
kind of
stretching
roar.

“Whatsamatter, you?”

No
one
dares
leave
for
even
a moment.

“How are you?”

I have
missed this.
Missed his
every
other
busy
pleasant
sound
as well.

“Don’t you like it?”

We make
eye contact.
Eye contact
blurs and
bulges.

“I don’t mind a bit. I like it.”

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Note: All of the art, writing, and music on this site belongs to the person who created it. Copying or republishing anything you see here without express and written permission from the author or artist is strictly prohibited.