“Downright Baffled 3” © Edward Michael Supranowicz

 

Fire and Ice

West Coast winds spawn fire
Leaving ashes in their wake.
East Coast winds drop snow

And ice-covered roads
Too hazardous for travel.
As West Coast mourns loss,

East Coast pays its tributes to
A past president–
A Peacemaker once scorned,

Now honored, by Past,
Present, and Future Leaders
Of a land torn asunder

By Greed.

Within earshot of
My East Coast home, sirens wail
And winds scream Terror

Yet unseen against the clear
Blue sky. I burrow
Under cover, close my eyes.

I pray silently
For safety from the Unknown.

 

Jackie Oldham (she/her) is a Baltimore-based writer, musician, and photographer whose works reckon with the meaning of life and death, love and loss, and how she fits into it all.

Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, The Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet who has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times.